YORK'S kingpin of non-League football Jim Collis is back - and he is determined to rediscover the habit of nearly five decades as a winner.

Collis has been appointed the manager of ailing Northern Counties East League division club Tadcaster Albion.

His new goal is to propel the club, which flirted with relegation from the NCEL last season, towards a fresh era of success fuelled by Collis' commitment to transform Albion into the area's leading non-League outfit.

Said the esteemed football guru who is returning to the management game after two years of self-imposed exile: "I am not going there to prop up the league. Some people have said they would be happy to finish half-way up the league. That's no good to me.

"I don't feel I have to prove anything. But I am going there to try to put Tadcaster Albion on the map."

Collis, who in 27 years as manager of Nestl Rowntree shaped the club into perennial trophy-gatherers across the York and District League, the NCEL, the Teesside League and the West Yorkshire League, has targeted local NCEL premier division rivals in his sights.

He declared: "I've told the committee at Tadcaster Albion that I want us to be beating the likes of Selby Town, Pickering Town and Goole, even though they are in a higher division. That's what I'm aiming for."

Few people in the York and district area can be better qualified than Collis in the art of amassing trophies. During his illustrious reign as Rowntrees' boss the club collected no fewer than 80 trophies.

However, a link of more than five decades - he first appeared as a player with Rowntrees as a teenager in 1951 - was shattered two years ago by a less than amicable parting.

That led to Collis taking a break from the game, snapping a bond as unthinkable as bacon without eggs, Sir Alex Ferguson without Manchester United, Ant without Dec, Jordan without publicity.

Now Collis, an excellent club golfer with Forest of Galtres GC, is back in the sporting arena he knows best.

His back-up team will include Brian Render as his assistant with former York City reserve goalkeeper Neil Smallwood coming in as coach and the new boss promised that there will be changes as he bids to build a competitive corps ahead of the start of next season.

After turning down offers as varied as Gainsborough Trinity's approach to make him chief scout to Ossett Town sounding him out as manager, Collis opted for Tadcaster Albion.

"When they first approached me I asked for several weeks to think about it," recalled Collis. "Then when I went there I saw a pitch which, even at the back end of the season, was immaculate.

"The club has a good youth set-up with teams from aged eight to under-16s and they have a good committee with people wanting to come on board left, right and centre. And also I felt wanted. That lifted me. Now I want to lift Tadcaster Albion. I am looking forward to the challenge."

Updated: 11:27 Wednesday, May 26, 2004