Ireland star Nathan Collins saw Liam Scales play at 14 and knew he could reach the top
Nathan Collins and Liam Scales are set to start for Ireland in Thursday's Nations League clash against Finland
Away from prying eyes, Nathan Collins will have pulled Liam Scales aside and thanked him for having his back.
Collins had just gifted Finland the opening goal in last month’s Nations League clash in Helsinki, with the sides set to duke it out again in Dublin tonight.
Collins and Scales traded a defensive one-two before stand-in skipper Collins, under no great pressure, undercooked a backpass to goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
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Finland striker Joel Pohjanpalo didn’t have to be asked twice. He pounced and scored and Ireland were left wallowing in an all-too-familiar sinking feeling. At least, that was, until Scales took matters into his own hands by heading home the equaliser in the second-half, before Robbie Brady went one better to win it late on.
Scales was Ireland’s stand out player over the course of that away double-header in Helsinki and Athens, putting his best foot forward under Heimir Hallgrimsson.
While Stephen Kenny blooded him at senior level, the former UCD and Shamrock Rovers defender has had to be patient waiting for a regular run in the side. But Scales and Collins are now Hallgrimsson’s central defensive partnership of choice - and will face Finland tonight.
Collins, who will once again deputise as captain with Seamus Colelman ruled out, said yesterday: “I‘ve watched Scalesy play since I was 14. He played centre-back at UCD with my brother, so I’ve always seen how good he was. He was aggressive, good on the ball, and his hair, you’ll always remember that!
“Going through the League of Ireland and getting the move to Celtic, he’s always had the qualities of a top player, so it’s no surprise to me. He’s been very patient and it’s a credit to himself how nice a fella he is. He really deserves this and has been taking it by the scruff of the neck.”
And Collins also believes Scales offers the team a welcomed sense of calm at the back, adding: “I know he’s there, I know I can give him the ball and I know he’ll win his headers. It makes my life easier when someone like that is playing beside me.”
Watching Scales as a kid, Collins had childhood dreams of playing for Ireland, but he couldn’t possibly have imagined playing alongside Scales in the same team. Nor would he have envisaged captaining the country, but he’s quickly shaping up to be Coleman’s long-term successor.
When Collins made that awful mistake in Helsinki, Hallgrimsson approached him in the dressing room at half-time and said “s***t happens” and to forget about it.
“I’ve made enough mistakes in my career already that I know I’ve to bounce back and I thought I did alright,” said Collins when asked about it yesterday. “A year or two ago, mentally I’d have been a bit lost after that. It would have affected me badly, so I’m proud of how I reacted, how I got on with it and moved on.
“I went back to basics, won my little duels, got my little passes, did those things right and got myself back in the game. But of course it was annoying - it affects you. But with the group we have here, I know they’ll fight for me, they’ll look after me, and they did.”
And that’s why Collins wants to repay Scales and the rest of his team-mates by showing the leadership to take Ireland to new heights.But for the here and now, repeating last month’s win over Finland will be just the job tonight ahead of Sunday’s trip to a weakened England.
“I’ll always try to be a leader,” said Collins. “Nathan Jones made me captain at Stoke when I was 18 for the way I was. I don’t think I’ve changed much mentally since then. I don’t think my style will ever change just because there’s an armband on my arm. I’ll always be the same player. Why would I change something that I can already do?”
When Ireland were stuffed 2-0 by Greece in Dublin two months ago, Collins came out shooting from the lip after Hallgrimsson’s second game in charge. The Brentford man said he and the Ireland players were “sick of losing” and said enough was enough, it was time for a change in attitude, never mind fortunes. So the win in Helsinki was a timely step in the right direction, and aspects of last month’s second-half performance in Greece were pleasing, despite the 2-0 defeat.
Collins added: “We’ve struggled for that belief that we could go win games, so to come from behind away to Finland, it brought something different into the team. The Greece game, we weren’t at our best first-half but we did create a lot of problems for them, we defended really well as a unit and then we had a right go at the end. Unfortunately it didn't come to anything, but it’s a lot to build on and there’s a lot of belief in there now. It’s a different feeling that we haven’t had in a while.”
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