Cooke proud of Mons' recent form
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A delighted Mick Cooke was full of praise for his Monaghan United side after a brilliant 2-0 victory against Waterford United last week.
Cooke described himself as ‘really pleased’ and ‘very proud’ with the performance of his side. "The last few weeks we have been playing well since we were knocked out of the cup, the only defeat was UCD I think,” Cooke said.
“We certainly looked forward to the game, having drawn with Sporting Fingal last week. I thought we did Waterford a favour, but obviously now we’ve done the rest of them a favour by winning down here tonight.”
Cooke was pleased for centre back Brian Gartland to grab the opening goal from a move which had been previously worked on before the match. “Our fear factor tonight was that Waterford are a big team, but we worked on something during the week and luckily it worked out."
The defence was especially pleasing for Cooke. “I don’t think Aaron McCarey had a lot to do in goal. Our shape was very good throughout the game and obviously the second goal was the icing on the cake.”
The win moved Monaghan up to 5th in the table, just behind the top four, where Cooke would happily finish the season. His only regret is the poor early season form that ruined any chance of being further up the table.
“Well obviously the top teams have the money, Waterford, UCD, Shels and Sporting Fingal. Our ambition at the start of the season was to try get into the top four which would have been a major achievement, but when you see the resources those clubs have, I’ll be very happy to finish fifth,” Cooke declared.
“We've gone ahead of Wexford which is great. After the bad start, when we only took two points from our first seven games, I think we’re probably the form team if you disregard the first seven games of the season.”
Cooke is not too far off the mark in that regard. Were you to discount the first seven games and start at Round Eight, Monaghan would still sit in fifth, but on the same total as Waterford Utd (41 points), only three behind Sporting Fingal (44), but still some way behind both Shelbourne (48) and U.C.D (47).
Cooke described himself as ‘really pleased’ and ‘very proud’ with the performance of his side. "The last few weeks we have been playing well since we were knocked out of the cup, the only defeat was UCD I think,” Cooke said.
“We certainly looked forward to the game, having drawn with Sporting Fingal last week. I thought we did Waterford a favour, but obviously now we’ve done the rest of them a favour by winning down here tonight.”
Cooke was pleased for centre back Brian Gartland to grab the opening goal from a move which had been previously worked on before the match. “Our fear factor tonight was that Waterford are a big team, but we worked on something during the week and luckily it worked out."
The defence was especially pleasing for Cooke. “I don’t think Aaron McCarey had a lot to do in goal. Our shape was very good throughout the game and obviously the second goal was the icing on the cake.”
The win moved Monaghan up to 5th in the table, just behind the top four, where Cooke would happily finish the season. His only regret is the poor early season form that ruined any chance of being further up the table.
“Well obviously the top teams have the money, Waterford, UCD, Shels and Sporting Fingal. Our ambition at the start of the season was to try get into the top four which would have been a major achievement, but when you see the resources those clubs have, I’ll be very happy to finish fifth,” Cooke declared.
“We've gone ahead of Wexford which is great. After the bad start, when we only took two points from our first seven games, I think we’re probably the form team if you disregard the first seven games of the season.”
Cooke is not too far off the mark in that regard. Were you to discount the first seven games and start at Round Eight, Monaghan would still sit in fifth, but on the same total as Waterford Utd (41 points), only three behind Sporting Fingal (44), but still some way behind both Shelbourne (48) and U.C.D (47).
About Brendan White
Brendan White is Extratime News Editor and is responsible for the news section of Extratime.ie. Brendan also covers matches in Dublin and Waterford. You can contact Brendan on twitter @whitebrendan. View Full Profile