After finally making his Spartans debut keeper Mark Cook revealed that he was disappointed that his side came away from FC United of Manchester empty handed. An early Joe Kendrick header wasn’t enough to see Spartans home as they conceded twice in two late second half minutes to lose a game that they deserved at least a point from. The former Newcastle United and Universitario de Deportes stopper went largely untested during the game and was saddened to see his team mates go unrewarded for a hardworking display.
He said “It obviously didn’t go as well as I wanted seeing as we came away with nothing. I feel sorry for the lads to be honest because they have worked tremendously hard and everyone could see that. We lost concentration and that has cost us two very sloppy goals but we can take a lot from the game against a good standard of opposition. Until eighty minutes we looked solid and the communication going on out there was much better than it has been.”
Cook and his team mates were roared on by a noisy travelling contingent of the Green Army and despite only being at the club for just over six weeks the twenty four year old has is only too aware how important the club is to the supporters.
He said “The players massively appreciate what the fans do and everyone knows that the Blyth Spartans fans get behind their team and they’re one of the loyalist groups of fans in the region. They are spot on and they know their football so hopefully we can reward them with a good run between now and the end of the season. We just need to keep winning games, we will go far as long as we stay disciplined as we were for the majority of the game today. There are lots of good players here and it’s a good group of lads.
Despite only recently joining the club Cook has seen some changes in personal of the coaching staff and he was full of praise for all three members of the Spartans coaching staff. This week saw the appointment of John Cornforth to assist new manager Tom Wade and the duo have already made an impact at the club along with keeper coach Carl King.
He said “There is the core of a very good squad and Tom has us more organised and much more professional so hopefully we can kick on. John has come in and you can see he has been around, what he has been saying is all good stuff and I’ve been impressed. Kingy is a good bloke to have around too, he keeps a smile on your face and keeps your confidence up but he’s also a very very good coach so there’s a good coaching team here.”