Cooke upbeat and positive after defeat
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Drogheda United manager Mick Cooke is either one of life's individuals
with a sunnier disposition or more likely, he’s a an expert on the
psychology of man management and knows that he cannot allow a dour
demeanour on his part to bring down the dressing room atmosphere
during their dismal run in the league. He spoke exclusively to
extratime.ie in the aftermath of his teams home defeat to Bray
Wanderers and spoke up their performance despite not mustering a shot
on Matt Gregg's goal.
“It was the best 90 minute performance that we’ve had this season I’ve been saying the last few weeks we’ve either had a good first half or a good second half but tonight both halves were decent. I don’t believe that our goalkeeper had a shot to save the whole game.”
Drogheda would feel that they had stopped their opponents opening them up and indeed they kept Bray to a minimum of chances and could have earned a draw. “ I think for their goal we were caught napping with a lack of concentration for a couple of seconds and when you give Gary Dempsey that freedom he’ll pick you out a pinpoint pass and it was a good cross for the goal.”
Drogheda had chances to score through Corcoran and McNally but they squandered them “I felt just before half time Dinny Corcoran should have got us back in the game with the great chance that he had from probably the move of the game. A couple of 1-2’s with Darragh McNamara and maybe Alan McNally could have got the equaliser at the end with the header at the end. He’s the one player we would have wanted to get the chance but unfortunately he put it the wrong side of the post.”
Next up Drogheda host Mervue in the cup and wisely Mick is not taking their challenge lightly “I’ll put out my strongest team, it’s a competition that I want to stay in. Mervue will be very buoyant they had a good win tonight against Longford, they’re a well organised team. They’ve already beaten Monaghan and they up at the top of the First Division. Last season when I was managing Monaghan they beat us in the second last game to effectively end our promotion hopes. I’ll look forward to it, it’s a break away from the league and the players will look forward to a cup game.”
Mick will use his contacts to shake up his squad during the transfer window but feels that the size of the task ahead of him is getting smaller each week “Maybe six, seven or eight weeks ago I was thinking that I might have to bring in 10 or 11 players, the ball was in their (the players) court and I think the players I’m going to have to bring in are getting less and less as they are getting better and better. I think I’ll certainly have to bring three or four to make sure we do avoid the drop.”
On a night where few players from either side stood out Darragh McNamara and Alan McNally could at least look back on their evening with some satisfaction, Mick spoke glowing about the attitude of the individuals “Darragh had a bad ankle injury and he went and did a fitness test where he was 50/50 but he wanted to play. He’s a young boy with a lot to learn but he’s enjoying his football now because he’s getting regular football. Alan McNally, I thought it was one of his better games this season, he’s getting stronger and stronger, he was very ill a couple of weeks ago and it’s taken a while to get over that, he was drained. Maybe he came back a bit too early and trained a bit too hard when he wasn’t 100% fit health wise, but I think he’s getting stronger and stronger and with the players that I have in mind come the end of October we won’t be down there.”
So the Drogheda United leader is still sending out positive vibes and he must be hoping that it will rub off on the team and bring an upturn in fortunes.
“It was the best 90 minute performance that we’ve had this season I’ve been saying the last few weeks we’ve either had a good first half or a good second half but tonight both halves were decent. I don’t believe that our goalkeeper had a shot to save the whole game.”
Drogheda would feel that they had stopped their opponents opening them up and indeed they kept Bray to a minimum of chances and could have earned a draw. “ I think for their goal we were caught napping with a lack of concentration for a couple of seconds and when you give Gary Dempsey that freedom he’ll pick you out a pinpoint pass and it was a good cross for the goal.”
Drogheda had chances to score through Corcoran and McNally but they squandered them “I felt just before half time Dinny Corcoran should have got us back in the game with the great chance that he had from probably the move of the game. A couple of 1-2’s with Darragh McNamara and maybe Alan McNally could have got the equaliser at the end with the header at the end. He’s the one player we would have wanted to get the chance but unfortunately he put it the wrong side of the post.”
Next up Drogheda host Mervue in the cup and wisely Mick is not taking their challenge lightly “I’ll put out my strongest team, it’s a competition that I want to stay in. Mervue will be very buoyant they had a good win tonight against Longford, they’re a well organised team. They’ve already beaten Monaghan and they up at the top of the First Division. Last season when I was managing Monaghan they beat us in the second last game to effectively end our promotion hopes. I’ll look forward to it, it’s a break away from the league and the players will look forward to a cup game.”
Mick will use his contacts to shake up his squad during the transfer window but feels that the size of the task ahead of him is getting smaller each week “Maybe six, seven or eight weeks ago I was thinking that I might have to bring in 10 or 11 players, the ball was in their (the players) court and I think the players I’m going to have to bring in are getting less and less as they are getting better and better. I think I’ll certainly have to bring three or four to make sure we do avoid the drop.”
On a night where few players from either side stood out Darragh McNamara and Alan McNally could at least look back on their evening with some satisfaction, Mick spoke glowing about the attitude of the individuals “Darragh had a bad ankle injury and he went and did a fitness test where he was 50/50 but he wanted to play. He’s a young boy with a lot to learn but he’s enjoying his football now because he’s getting regular football. Alan McNally, I thought it was one of his better games this season, he’s getting stronger and stronger, he was very ill a couple of weeks ago and it’s taken a while to get over that, he was drained. Maybe he came back a bit too early and trained a bit too hard when he wasn’t 100% fit health wise, but I think he’s getting stronger and stronger and with the players that I have in mind come the end of October we won’t be down there.”
So the Drogheda United leader is still sending out positive vibes and he must be hoping that it will rub off on the team and bring an upturn in fortunes.
