A Chat with Mick Cooke

Few Drogheda United fans would have expected the season their team had in 2012. The man who is attributed with driving this success, Mick Cooke, talked to Paul Holland about the Claret and Blue's season as the Louth club look forward to 2013 and European football back in Hunky Dorys Park.

It's been an outstanding season for the club in so many ways...

Yes it certainly has but we never really envisaged that things would turn out as well as they have. At the start of the season, realistically my hope was for us to be comfortable in mid-table and hopefully put a decent run together in one of the cups. This is what every underdog team strives for. Some of the pundits were tipping us for relegation but I never once thought we would have a relegation battle on our hands. To finish in second and only four points behind Sligo is a magnificent achievement!

A lot of our players had only First Division experience...

That's right-there was only really Fabio [Declan O'Brien], Paul Crowley and Alan McNally who had played in the Premier Division for any serious amount of time. All the players have proved that they could make the step up and what really was crucial was their winning mentality throughout the season . The ex-Monaghan players had won promotion last year and missed out on a play-off the previous season, so they had won most of their games over two seasons and had the right attitude.

To have been in the top three for most of the season and to be in the hunt for the League title has been nothing short of amazing!

It's been an incredible achievement for the players and great credit to their professionalism. The pre-season was a tremendous success and was led by Robbie Horgan, Danny Miller, Gerry Kelly and Mark Clohessey. Then we had Damien Kavanagh and Phil O' Neill behind the scenes, always having the food ready after training. It's been a whole club effort with so many hard-working volunteers such as Bridie Kerr making the tea and many many more. It's like rolling everything into a big snowball. Irrespective of how the season finishes, it's already been a successful season but we really want European Football next year and will be taking nothing for granted. We need two points from the two games remaining, to be absolutely sure.

Phil O'Neill has been with you for all of 20 years !

Phil is an integral part of the backroom staff and was kitman for the Ireland Senior Ladies team when I took over as manager and has been with me ever since, at Shamrock Rovers , Monaghan and now Drogheda .We have a great bond together and he gives Damien Kavanagh all the help he needs. He knows the league inside out and he's always there with a smile on his face and has the soup and sandwiches ready after training etc.

The Board have been magnificent in steadying the club's finances...

Yes they certainly have. It was a tough time when Jim Agnew came in as Chairman. But everybody in the club, from Trudy and Nikki in the offices, Matt and his staff on the pitch and all the volunteers behind the scenes, have played a huge part in making things better off the pitch. It's like one big family. But on the pitch we certainly won't be the surprise packets next season!.

As a player you had lost so many Cup Finals with Drogheda and St. Pat's. You must have been over the moon to win the EA Sports Cup against Rovers...

After all those defeats it certainly gave me such a wonderful feeling. I really hope it won't be the last of the trophies we bring to Drogheda. We got a wonderful reception back at the D hotel  and the reaction from the fans in the town and surrounding area has been brilliant. There's great credit due to the players and the way they've looked after themselves all year.

Apart from the EA Sports Cup win, what other performances would stand out for you?

The 3-0 win over Derry away was a fantastic performance, also the semi-final EA Sports Cup win over Sligo Rovers on the Monday after they had beaten us 4-1 on the Saturday in the league. Considering the great squad of players they had, that was a marvellous achievement. Thank God there has been many more highs than lows.

Looking ahead to next season do you see yourself making many changes?

I think that the majority of the squad have proven that they can step up to the plate so we will be keeping most of this season's squad. We need to bring in a few experienced players also. On the other hand I am sure that there are players who will want to move on when they didn't get to play regular football this season. When it comes down to it, it's all about playing football and that's what players really want to do. I am talking to all the players and hope to have concluded talks by the end of next week.

That said, we have lots to improve on. We are a club for the future and we are climbing the ladder rung by rung. There won't be any big jumps or any rash decisions to put the club in any financial danger. We're not going to break the bank for anybody. It has happened too many times. The money is not there anymore anyway. I will be meeting with everybody involved with the club over the next few weeks in an effort to improve things for next season.

We have an excellent relationship with all the schoolboy clubs in the area but we want the Community as a whole to be more involved in our club. There is great potential in a real soccer town like Drogheda. It's not like Monaghan in such a Gaelic Football County (where I found it very difficult).

You've mentioned a lot of people that have been instrumental in making this happen but you are the man that pulls all this together! You have chosen the right people to make this happen and you have great man management skills to sort things out if the need arises, unlike Mr Trapattoni!

Well obviously I've picked up a lot off various managers I played under. Even if my name is often out front in the media ,it's certainly not all about me. As they say I  do drive the bus but it's the combination of everybody pulling together that makes all the difference.

I am very fortunate to have  worked with such a fantastic backroom staff and everyone involved at the club. But I must always pay tribute to the supporters, especially last year when things weren't going so well. They could see we were always trying to play football. They were brilliant again this year, up in Derry, down in Cork and everywhere in between. They were certainly the twelfth man up in Tallaght when they drowned out the Rovers support so it was great that we have a trophy  for them to celebrate!