Neill leaves with great memories

Neill Collins admits he leaves Wolves with a bagful of fond memories after sealing his permanent move to Preston.

The 26-year-old scored nine goals in 96 games for Wolves - a healthy record for a centre-back.

Known for his towering aerial strength, four of those came in the Championship title-winning season last term when he played 23 games.

And one was a precious late winner at Doncaster last December after he only came into the side as a late replacement for Michael Mancienne, who fell ill just before the game.

"There were some really good times with reaching the play-offs in my first season and then being in the squad as we won the Championship," said Collins.

"The Doncaster goal was a particular highlight because it was such an important win.

"It was a great day all round and I'll never forget the atmosphere in the changing room afterwards.

"We had so many great days during the first few months of the season, winning games and scoring a lot of goals."

The transfer of Collins, who has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract at Deepdale, is good news for everyone.

Wolves receive around £750,000 for the player after signing him for about £200,000 three years ago.

But the Scot was just delighted to finish his Wolves career on a high after scoring the match-winning penalty in the Carling Cup shootout against Swindon earlier this season.

"I'm just pleased that my last action for Wolves was to score the decisive penalty in the shootout against Swindon earlier this season - right into the top corner!" he said.

"It wouldn't have been good to have gone out on my sending off at Reading so at least getting that chance against Swindon finished things off nicely.

"I'd certainly love the chance to play at Molineux again one day.

"It was disappointing not to be involved so much over the last few months of the season but it just wasn't to be.

"Who knows? Maybe if we (Preston) beat Chelsea in the Cup we'll get drawn against Wolves in the next round!"

Collins only left to seek regular first team football and has played 16 Championship games this season for Preston, where he joins his former Wolves team-mate Stephen Elliott. "This is a good move for me," said Collins, who only slipped down the pecking order after the arrival of £2.3m Christophe Berra and when Jody Craddock returned to form.

"It's always going to be difficult to leave Wolves and I loved my time there. But I want to play regular football and that's happened for me at Preston.

"It was going to be difficult to feature at Wolves and Preston is another big club with great history.

"Over the last 10 years or so Preston have done consistently well at this level and perhaps over-achieved a bit and it's an exciting challenge to be joining now. There are some great people at Wolves throughout the club from the senior level down to the Academy and I've made some really good friends."

Preston sacked boss Alan Irvine last week just months after he led them to the play-offs.

Collins says he sees similarities between Preston this season and Wolves in 2007-08, where they just failed to repeat their feat of reaching the top six in McCarthy's first season in charge.

But he reckons their extra experience could be the 'X' factor that Wolves didn't have that season when they just missed out on the play-offs.

"We've got more experienced players than we had at Wolves which might just make a difference," he said.

"The Championship this season is as tight as ever.

"I think we're eight points off the play-offs and eight points off relegation.

"A couple of wins and we could be right up there.

"The situation reminds me a bit of Wolves in my second year when we'd done really well to reach the play-offs in the first season.

"Then, in the second season, it was a bit more difficult. But if we carry on working hard and stick together we've a chance of moving up the table."