When Chris Westwood left Pools in the summer of 2005, Martin Scott initally tried to replace him from within the existing pool of players. But with just a couple of games gone, he moved to bring in Neill Collins from Sunderland on a half-season loan. Scotland under-21 international Collins had featured for the Sunderland first team on a number of occasions, but had found himself down the pecking order when Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy assessed his newly-promoted squad ahead of a Premiership campaign. Collins made an impressive debut in a 1-0 win at Doncaster and soon established himself as a strong presence alongside Michael Nelson at the heart of the Pools defence. He played 25 times for Pools before returning to the Stadium of Light at the beginning of 2006. A year later, after failing to establish himself in the Sunderland first team, Collins left to team up with his old boss McCarthy at Wolves.