WITH his stint as caretaker manager over, Sam Collins has returned to playing football; he can also start answering his phone as well.

During his time in command of Hartlepool United, Collins had too much to deal with off the pitch, let alone on it.

But with the managerial reins handed over to Paul Murray, Collins was instantly back in the side. He was man of the match on his comeback.

Pools lost at Cambridge, but Collins was immense at centre-half.

And, while the 37-year-old joked getting down the stairs at home might have been a problem, talking to his friends wouldn't be.

"When you're doing this (management), people get your telephone number and I even stopped answering it when friends rang up," he said. "You think 'leave me alone'."

Collins has played under his share of managers in his career, and Murray is his sixth different boss at Victoria Park.

Stepping into the role himself was an eye-opener, a first-hand realisation of what the job entails.

It's also proved a valuable experience for the future.

"Right from being a young lad I always wanted to be a manager and I always respected them and tried to think about things their way, what they were trying to do.

"I've never criticised managers because I've always thought it's hard to manage 20-odd people and there's all the stuff behind the scenes as well.

"Obviously I've done it for a couple of weeks and I loved it. It's even better when you win but doing the job and being hands on is brilliant.

"Now the gaffer's come in I will do everything I possibly can because I have a lot of respect for him, he's a great guy, I love him."

Murray and Collins were Victoria Park team-mates and both are cut from the same experienced football cloth.

Both are winners, both on-pitch leaders.

Now with Murray in command, and Collins part of his coaching team, the pair will be working closely to life Pools out of their predicament.

"We had a right go when we played together and we'll have a right go now," said Collins.

"We have a great staff and great set of lads, which we'll look to add to, and we'll have a right go?

"I've kept in touch and I've spoken to him a few times over the last couple of weeks about players they had at Oldham and we've talked over the last few days. We've had long chats, we'll talk about the good points, the bad points, I'll be very honest."

With Collins in the backroom staff – and fully stocked at that – they are joined by assistant boss Willie Donachie.

An old school coach, Donachie sets the example. On Saturday at Cambridge he did every part of the warm-up with as much enthusiasm as any of the players.

It's an attitude Collins feels Pools will benefit from.

He said: "You get all these modern ideas from coaches. He joined in the warm up, you love seeing that as a player.

"Everything he says is simple. Football should be straight-forward not complicated – just do it simple, you win it and you give it to someone in a blue and white shirt.

"That's all it needs to be, it doesn't have to be anything else? Be well organised, do the simple things right, keep the ball, find what their weaknesses are and try to exploit them and start winning."

That's been Pools' problem - winning. It's not happened enough, hence their uneasy spot at her foot of the Football League.

Pools take on Newport at Victoria Park this weekend.

Collins said: "There is plenty of time and plenty of games. The sooner we get two or three players in the better, we'll be all over the place this week having a look around, and making a lot of phone calls between the three of us.

"Once we can add to the group the sooner we can start going in the other direction. We need that."