IN May 2018, Neill Collins was preparing for a low-key cup tie amid the tranquil calm of Florida, the club captain of a once headline name in American soccer getting ready for the old banana skin of lower-league opposition. By the next day, the Tampa Bay Rowdies had been humbled by their hosts, their boss had lost his job, and Collins’ boots were up on the dressing room peg to stay, his backside now parked in the manager’s office.

Twelve months on, Collins was the man preparing the Tampa players for a second round US Open Cup match against a lower-tier side, only this time the opposition in question hailed from even further down the food chain.

“When the opportunity came to be the head coach, it came out of the blue,” the Troon native, whose footballing journey started at Queen’s Park, recalled of last year’s slip-up in the hours before his first cup tie as manager. “It was actually about a year ago to the day, we were playing in the same competition and, having been on a bad run, we also suffered a couple of upsets. The owner spoke to me and asked me my opinion on a couple of things, and ended up offering me the job. It was completely unexpected but it was something that I knew further down the line I knew I wanted to do, and it was too good an opportunity to turn down.”

The sudden switch from integral team member to man in charge -- taking over from fellow Scotland U-21 cap Stuart Campbell -- has not been in vain. As it transpired, Collins avoided the potential banana skin, safely negotiating a 4-1 win against Florida amateurs The Villages. More to the point, the result was in keeping with an unbeaten start to the season that was only ended after 13 games when they were knocked out of the cup in the following round against fellow USL side Oklahoma City Energy. That makes Tampa the only remaining undefeated side at the time of writing in the USL Championship, the American second tier.

Tampa and the USL Championship might be on the fringes of the world game, marooned in a still somewhat unfashionable theatre. But, in this off-radar environment, the image of another young Scottish coach quickly finding his feet amid a rapidly shifting American soccer landscape has emerged.

“Going back to last year, I took over and everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” the 35-year-old said. “We had serious injuries, you had people retiring on top of me having to retire to take the job. So all these things just constantly piled up on top of each other and compounded everything.

“What’s different this year is we had the opportunity to have a pre-season. We had an opportunity to change the squad into a group of players who I felt could implement what I was looking for and also just to change the face of the Rowdies. We’re a lot younger. The average age is down from about 29 to about 24.

“And without sounding boring, the boys have just worked extremely hard. We’ve reaped the rewards so far because of that. But we know there’s a lot of room for improvement and a lot of the season still to play.”

Collins earned his stripes at Dumbarton after moving on from Queen’s Park, going on to carve out a successful playing career in the English Championship and League One with clubs including Sunderland, Wolves and Sheffield United before winding down his latter years on Florida’s gulf coast.

The Tampa Bay Rowdies name is celebrated in the annals of US soccer as one of the sides that competed in the 1970s heyday of the NASL with its world-class contingent that included the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff.

The idiosyncrasies of US soccer mean there is no means for promotion or relegation between divisions. But as MLS continues to expand by other means, Collins sees a place in the top tier for an outfit like Tampa somewhere down the line.

“Going to MLS is not really related to what you’re doing on the field, it’s more the factors of ownership, finances, stadium and supporter numbers,” he added.

“I think the thing the Rowdies has, that we have the potential to be strong on, is that we have such a historic name and brand.

“From my point of view, I just need to make the team better... and I think right now we’re in a league that’s perfect for us and a league that’s growing. You don’t want to go into MLS until you’re 100% ready to do so.”

Collins, meanwhile, continues to learn, bearing an eclectic data bank of coaches he played under to reference whenever the need may arise.

Managers like John McCormack at Queen’s Park. And in particular, Roy Keane at Sunderland, and Mick McCarthy at both Sunderland and Wolves, both of whom he greatly admires.

The latter pair form an intriguing signpost in not just his personal journey but also the folk history of the game.

Collins was about to move from a Keane-managed Sunderland to McCarthy’s then Wolves side. As he delicately put it: “Anyone who’s not been on the moon knew about their rivalry, or fallout I should say”.

In the course of the transfer, Collins got a lesson. “I think it tells you a lot about both men the fact that the deal happened,” Collins said. “That Roy, although he wanted me to stay at the time, was big enough to go and let me play for the manager that brought me to Sunderland in the first place.”