Nathan Collins reflects on journey from Cherry Orchard to Wolves

Nathan Collins was born and raised in Leixlip - but the foundations of his football career were laid in Cherry Orchard.

Back in June, he scored one of the great Irish goals when he surged up the field and brilliantly cut through the Ukrainian defence to put his team 1-0 up.

The 21-year-old then became the biggest Irish transfer of all time in the summer when he moved from Burnley to Wolves for a reported £20.5m.

There's been the odd bump in the road - he saw red for a wild challenge on Manchester City's Jack Grealish earlier this month - but generally Collins' career has been on a major upward curve for quite a while now.

And it all started in the renowned Ballyfermot nursery that has produced the likes of Keith Fahey, Mark Travers, Enda Stevens and Andy Reid.

"I was at Cherry Orchard from when I was five," he told RTÉ Sport.

"My whole family played for Cherry Orchard. My little brother, who is only nine, has moved to Cherry Orchard. That's my early days really.

"I got back there in the summer they had a little camp on. I met all the kids, met all the staff I'd known for years. You go into the clubhouse and you see all the pictures, [the players] who've been there. It helped me strive to be a footballer.

"It had everything I needed. It had that family support, the people around me who never let me get too big for anything. They always kept me grounded. I couldn't be any more thankful for them."

Collins went to Stoke City when he was 15 and settled quickly. After a few years of development, he broke into the first team and started to turn heads - Manchester United were heavily linked a year ago, but Collins went to Burnley instead, suffering relegation after a tough campaign but displaying enough talent to attract interest from a