New centre back Paddy Collins is trying to impress as much as he can in his month with Oxford United - so he can earn himself a contract.

The defender, who arrived on a month's loan from Darlington and enjoyed a good debut in Saturday's 3-1 FA Cup win over Northwich Victoria, is playing for his future because he's convinced he will not be retained by Quakers boss Dave Penney, the former Oxford United midfielder.

"Everything's open so far as this month is concerned," Collins said.

"It's pretty sure that I'm not going to have my contract extended at Darlington in July so I'm playing for a contract, at here or wherever, I want managers to watch me.

"Darren Patterson's given me the chance here to play and I'm going to take that and do my best.

"I'm here for a month and am going to take it from there, and see how I progress."

And Collins was pleased with his first match for the U's.

"I really enjoyed it. A winning result is the main thing, I think we've still got individually, and as the back three working together, a lot to improve on, but we showed a bit of character to go 1-1 and still get it back from there.

"I'm really happy first game. It was a positive debut and there's more to come."

Collins admitted that before the game - Patterson's first in charge - there was a sense of apprehension, which was probably because the players were desperate to give a much better showing after their 5-0 defeat at Rushden in the previous game.

"Before the start there was a bit of confidence and a bit of anxiety," he said. "We just wanted to get out there. It was a long week really.

"There was a lot going on, I just came in and witnessed it all, the change of manager and me coming in . . . and we just wanted to get out there and play.

"We were happy how we started out, disappointed to concede a goal like we did - I think I could have done better and other players could have done better - but we've gone on and won the game, and that's the main thing."

U's captain Barry Quinn said: "Paddy came in at the start of the week and trained with us and you could see straight away that he's played at a decent level.

"It's always hard first game, especially as he's come in during the week that has been, but I'm sure he's delighted, he did very well and I'm sure he's pleased to get his first game out of the way and we can concentrate now on the league."

Patterson was delighted with Collins's debut.

"He was terrific," said the new boss after the game. "He hadn't played for a while, but you could see why we got him - he's honest, he heads it, he's positionally sound and what I really liked about him today was that he was very vocal.

"That's something we've been missing here and something I'd like to bring because we need more men in the team. I thought he did very well and I'm very pleased for him."