An injury ruled the young defender out of the fray in December and he missed out on Wednesday's good run throughout Christmas.
Since then, injury problems, the form of Richard Wood and new defensive signings have hampered Collins' progress but now he is back in the team, he is wanting to stay there.
He told Footymad: "It’s great for me to be back. It’s unfortunate because of injuries to the other lads but hopefully I did well enough on Saturday to get a game next week at Oldham.
"It’s really difficult because the manager wants experienced players but I can’t get experience until I play so it’s a difficult situation but all I have to do is keep trying and try to keep my place."
With the lack of action for the former Sunderland player, many thought he would be missing vital match fitness but he did well against both Huddersfield when he came on as substitute and also when he started against Tranmere.
He added: "I have been preparing for this chance for the last few months now so playing against doesn’t seem that hard – the hardest thing will be to keep my place and keep impressing the manager.
"It’s difficult to asses the team since last time I played regularly because we have a whole bunch of new players. Drew Talbot’s doing really well up front but he is still learning, we are missing Steve MacLean so the team is very different but we are still doing well."