Cooke finds home comforts
Credit:
Mick Cooke has had a hard time of it so far this season but the clouds
over Hunky Dorys Park are beginning to part and anyone who has spent
time in his company wouldn’t begrudge him a moments enjoyment.
Certainly not the staff of UCD who warmly congratulated him as they made their way from the ground after their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Mick's Drogheda players, which is not always the case when losing teams staff leave a ground.
He spoke exclusively to ExtraTime.ie after the match and was delighted with the performance his players had put on. “It’s a good 3 points, in particular to bounce back from the defeat on Friday night the way we did. We’ve played them (UCD) three times this year already and they’ve beaten us 3 times. They beat us here 1-0 in the first league game of the season and twice up at their place after us taking the lead and conceding two injury time winners. Tonight when they came out and got 1-1 I thought here we go again but the players responded really well. I thought the lads should a real character when we went down to ten men.”
New recruit Tiarnan Mulvenna starred on the night and scored a well taken brace of goals, Mick can see the beginnings of what he hopes will be a beautiful partnership with Dinny Corcoran “I thought Tiarnan Mulvenna did extremely well, he’s only come from junior football and the intensity of that wouldn’t be the same as what we are used to.
He’s managed 70-75 minutes tonight and he’s nearly there. I have to be careful and protect him rather than run the legs out from under him but in a couple of weeks we’ll get 90 minutes out of him. I think right away Dinny Corcoran and himself are certainly setting up a good partnership.”
Tiarnan was of course a Lilywhite to the core and will shortly have played his ex employers three times in Drogs colours, Mick thinks this will spur on his striker. “When I signed him a couple of days before the Dundalk match he was really thrilled to be involved in that game when I said that I was going to stick him in. We have to play Dundalk twice in a fortnight we have them here in the League and again in the Cup.”
Mark O’Brien picked up two yellow cards and will thus be suspended for the Bohemians clash this weekend, his manager wasn’t overflowing with sympathy for his midfielder. “Not really, I don’t know but maybe he was a bit harsh, but there again once you have your feet off of the ground it’s a sending off offence. The intent is there and thank god he didn’t connect, you don’t want to see anybody broke up, but if the intent is there you deserve to be sent off.
The resurgent Drogs face Bohemians at Dalymount on Friday Mick knows this will be no easy fixture. “I was out in Bray last night and they (Bohs) gave a very, very good performance, but certainly I’ll look forward to it. We’ve played them twice this year so far and they’ve beaten us on each occasion by 1-0. I felt that maybe here we could have got something out of the game, at Dalymount it was only my second game and it was definitely backs to the wall and we were probably lucky to come away with only a 1-0 defeat. But I thought certainly in the game here I felt we should have got something out of it.”
Colin O’Brien scored the clinching goal in the dying moments of the match and pipped Mulvenna to the man of the match award. Mick gave his fullback qualified praise. “The boy has great energy, it’s just how we channel that energy with him. He’s a lot to learn, he’s only a baby at this standard as of yet, but he’s learning quickly”
Drogheda are in the process of strengthening their squad with the addition of Gareth Whelan and Robbie Clarke to their ranks and are trying to secure the services of Dave Rogers. Mick sees the need for new blood getting less by the week as the performances and results improve. “As I said to the players a couple of weeks ago they are here to please me not the other way around. I think a couple of weeks ago it would have been 80% against them now it’s 80% for them and as I said it’s up to them to lessen the numbers that come here in July.
We’re getting there slowly but surely the players are learning what I want from them, in fairness to them they can’t work hard enough.” The Drogs have a couple of fundraising activities coming up so if any Drogs out there want to support the club. Firstly they can watch their heroes on Sunday 26 June at 3.00pm as they take on Dundee Utd in a friendly at Hunky Dorys Park. If anyone can remember the 2-2 draw when they played each other two years ago at this time of year it was certainly an entertaining affair with a sizeable away support swelling the numbers. Hopefully they will have David Goodwillie in their ranks as he was one of the stand out performers last season the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
The Drogs are also hosting an Italia 90 tribute with a League of Ireland managers XI taking on an Italia 90’s legends XI on the 2nd of July at Hunky Dorys Park with a 3pm kick off. The LOI managers team is a glittering array of the finest tactical brains in the League plus analysts and TV presenters from RTE Sport and MNS.
Certainly not the staff of UCD who warmly congratulated him as they made their way from the ground after their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Mick's Drogheda players, which is not always the case when losing teams staff leave a ground.
He spoke exclusively to ExtraTime.ie after the match and was delighted with the performance his players had put on. “It’s a good 3 points, in particular to bounce back from the defeat on Friday night the way we did. We’ve played them (UCD) three times this year already and they’ve beaten us 3 times. They beat us here 1-0 in the first league game of the season and twice up at their place after us taking the lead and conceding two injury time winners. Tonight when they came out and got 1-1 I thought here we go again but the players responded really well. I thought the lads should a real character when we went down to ten men.”
New recruit Tiarnan Mulvenna starred on the night and scored a well taken brace of goals, Mick can see the beginnings of what he hopes will be a beautiful partnership with Dinny Corcoran “I thought Tiarnan Mulvenna did extremely well, he’s only come from junior football and the intensity of that wouldn’t be the same as what we are used to.
He’s managed 70-75 minutes tonight and he’s nearly there. I have to be careful and protect him rather than run the legs out from under him but in a couple of weeks we’ll get 90 minutes out of him. I think right away Dinny Corcoran and himself are certainly setting up a good partnership.”
Tiarnan was of course a Lilywhite to the core and will shortly have played his ex employers three times in Drogs colours, Mick thinks this will spur on his striker. “When I signed him a couple of days before the Dundalk match he was really thrilled to be involved in that game when I said that I was going to stick him in. We have to play Dundalk twice in a fortnight we have them here in the League and again in the Cup.”
Mark O’Brien picked up two yellow cards and will thus be suspended for the Bohemians clash this weekend, his manager wasn’t overflowing with sympathy for his midfielder. “Not really, I don’t know but maybe he was a bit harsh, but there again once you have your feet off of the ground it’s a sending off offence. The intent is there and thank god he didn’t connect, you don’t want to see anybody broke up, but if the intent is there you deserve to be sent off.
The resurgent Drogs face Bohemians at Dalymount on Friday Mick knows this will be no easy fixture. “I was out in Bray last night and they (Bohs) gave a very, very good performance, but certainly I’ll look forward to it. We’ve played them twice this year so far and they’ve beaten us on each occasion by 1-0. I felt that maybe here we could have got something out of the game, at Dalymount it was only my second game and it was definitely backs to the wall and we were probably lucky to come away with only a 1-0 defeat. But I thought certainly in the game here I felt we should have got something out of it.”
Colin O’Brien scored the clinching goal in the dying moments of the match and pipped Mulvenna to the man of the match award. Mick gave his fullback qualified praise. “The boy has great energy, it’s just how we channel that energy with him. He’s a lot to learn, he’s only a baby at this standard as of yet, but he’s learning quickly”
Drogheda are in the process of strengthening their squad with the addition of Gareth Whelan and Robbie Clarke to their ranks and are trying to secure the services of Dave Rogers. Mick sees the need for new blood getting less by the week as the performances and results improve. “As I said to the players a couple of weeks ago they are here to please me not the other way around. I think a couple of weeks ago it would have been 80% against them now it’s 80% for them and as I said it’s up to them to lessen the numbers that come here in July.
We’re getting there slowly but surely the players are learning what I want from them, in fairness to them they can’t work hard enough.” The Drogs have a couple of fundraising activities coming up so if any Drogs out there want to support the club. Firstly they can watch their heroes on Sunday 26 June at 3.00pm as they take on Dundee Utd in a friendly at Hunky Dorys Park. If anyone can remember the 2-2 draw when they played each other two years ago at this time of year it was certainly an entertaining affair with a sizeable away support swelling the numbers. Hopefully they will have David Goodwillie in their ranks as he was one of the stand out performers last season the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
The Drogs are also hosting an Italia 90 tribute with a League of Ireland managers XI taking on an Italia 90’s legends XI on the 2nd of July at Hunky Dorys Park with a 3pm kick off. The LOI managers team is a glittering array of the finest tactical brains in the League plus analysts and TV presenters from RTE Sport and MNS.
