Workplace Antics Lit Up ‘Nearly’ Night
Cup holder Paul Cook!
Paul Cook will not be prowling the Wembley touchline at Wembley a week tomorrow. He will, though, be at Anfield for the Premier League winners’ big party next Sunday. Knowing him, he would have found a way to be at both anyway.
Chesterfield’s extraordinary boss has missed out on a fifth managerial-career promotion courtesy of his club’s defeat at Walsall on Friday night.
But his post-match words at Bescot sounded very much like those that preceded The Spirites’ runaway National League title success last spring. Chastened by crushing last-gasp disappointment against Notts County in the play-off final two years ago this month, he said simply that it was time to congratulate the Magpies and for he and his players to take their bitter medicine and try to be better next time.
He expressed the same sentiment on the edge of the Saddlers’ pitch two nights ago, his club’s first year back in the Football League having ended in a spirited near miss after their late surge in the regular season secured the last play-off place.
He preferred not to analyse the game, saying such occasions were all about the winners, but Chesterfield played pretty well after a backs-to-the-wall start and could easily have opened the tie up following their 2-0 first-leg defeat at home.
They engineered endless promising positions for themselves against resilient, deserving opponents who did much the same and either side could have scored several goals on a kinder evening.
Cook had run out alone five minutes before kick-off and made a clenched salute to the Chesterfield fans in the corner, then his players did the same before retreating again up the tunnel to make their official and permanent entrance.
It was an interesting change to the established protocol but, for the rest of the time, it was business as usual from the former Wolves midfielder, whose conduct in the heat of the match can best be described as restless, madly entertaining and memorable.
How we best remember him…..
While Walsall’s Matt Sadler often stood with arms folded, calm and measured, Cook was anything but….pointing to his players, gesturing to the bench, pleading to the assistant referee and fourth official, occasionally bantering with home fans.
He was still waving and guiding with his free hand while the other was wrapped around the drink that was handed to him mid-way through the first half….well, those over-used vocal chords must require serious lubrication.
On this occasion, all the cajoling came to nothing but here’s something that will have escaped the Saddlers fans baiting him from the main stand. Despite his annoyance at the ridiculous pitch invasion before the final whistle and the fears he had for his players, he went into the home dressing room afterwards to congratulate the winners and wish them well at Wembley. That’s classy.
For all his excellence in the dug-out with Accrington, Sligo, Wigan, Portsmouth and his current employers, his own play-off CV is poor. So is my Chesterfield record.
I saw them lose at Wrexham two seasons ago, at Halifax last spring when a point would have sewn up the Vanarama title with six games to go and now at Walsall. Sorry, Cooky!
The dialogue was familiar, though, both in our five minutes together pre-match and briefly afterwards: “Are you still going to Wolves? Will Cunha leave? Have you got a ticket?”
You can’t help but like him and want the best for him. And, as a Liverpool season ticket holder, he certainly watches the best at every possible opportunity.
A friend to the supporter-base.,,,,,whiling away the pre-match minutes.
Among the players who tried for him this weekend and narrowly failed, was substitute Michael Jacobs, the winger who has played 69 Spireites games following the 43 he compiled in a pleasing spell at Molineux more than a decade ago.
He wasn’t the only Wolves link on Friday evening. David Edwards was co-commentating for Sky, former Walsall midfielder Paul Jones was across the gangway on duty in the press box and Stephen Ward was in the crowd. I told Cooky that David Kelly – a play-off final hat-trick hero for Walsall in 1988 – was present, too, but he knew that and had already seen him. Of course he had.
We’ll try to catch up with him again next season and witness a victory for a change. Chesterfield, with supportive backers, still feel like a club on the up and they have a manager well used to moving in that very direction. Watch this space.
*George Elokobi was left disappointed when his Maidstone side were beaten 1-0 by Boreham Wood today in the final of the National League South play-offs. Boreham Wood therefore return to the fifth tier a year after being relegated from it.