We’re happy to fly flag for the region – Collins

May 26 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

“We go away on our holidays now, look to come back stronger next year and get one or two fresh faces in and kick on next season.

“In the first half, when the crowd went up, we knew they (Newcastle) had gone behind and late on we were 2-1 down and the crowd were pretty flat we didn’t know what was going on around the grounds. I thought perhaps Newcastle had got an equaliser back.

“We tried to just keep our minds on the game and hoped the other results looked after themselves. Thankfully they went in our favour.”

Collins was pleased with the way his team performed against a side which reached the European Cup semi-finals and will play in Saturday’s FA Cup final.

“We pushed Chelsea pretty close, a couple of their goals were screamers, but we gave them a decent run for their money,” he said.