The defender was controversially robbed of a last-gasp winner against Aston Villa on Saturday. And the two lost points could prove so costly.

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The draw saw Sunderland climb a place out of the relegation zone as Fulham fell into the bottom three after losing 1-0 at home to Newcastle.

Victory would have lifted Roy Keane's men two places higher – above Bolton and Birmingham to 15th.

And Collins now expects a nail-biting scrap to the death.

He said: "Wigan had a good win; Boro won again too. We've gone up a place but another two points on top of that would have catapulted us up a few more places.

"I think it's going to be tight throughout the season down there. Derby might drop away a bit, but there are perhaps six or seven of us who are going to be getting out of it and then coming back down again like we have.

"We've got ourselves up to 13th or 14th before this season and thought that with another win, we can kick on, but then we've got dragged back into it. It'll be like that this season for a lot of teams.

"Usually the 40 point mark is about enough, but I think it will be lower points this year to keep you up."

There were few who could see merit in referee Steve Bennett's decision to rule that there had been a foul in the box as Collins rose to head home Grant Leadbitter's injury-time corner.

Bennett had handed Sunderland a potential goalscoring chance at the end of first-half added time – only to end the half before Ross Wallace got the chance to deliver the corner.

Television replays did show Collins lead with his right arm as he jumped with a posse of players, but Villa keeper Scott Carson never looked like being first to the ball in the crowded box.

Collins said: "I'm angry. I don't get too many – I think my last was against Villa a couple of seasons ago and I thought I'd done it again.

"To see it chalked off in the last minute is very disappointing, to say the least. I can't see why he's disallowed it. It was a good ball in by Grant and I got a good run in.

"I think Danny Higginbotham was with me but I don't think anyone was too near the keeper. He's perhaps thinking he's going to get a comfortable catch, but I got in front of him and nudged it in.

"I was off celebrating, thinking that's it and I couldn't believe he disallowed it. We've been robbed of two points, I think.

"I think keepers are too protected in situations like that. Refs tend to look after them.

"I don't know if the ref thought he'd played the time and he'd decided to blow. He did the same first-half – we got a corner and he blew up before we took it. I don't know whether he'd made the decision to blow the whistle, but unfortunately the ball ended up in the back of the net and there's a bit of controversy."