Gloversblog (Page 6)

This weekend Yeovil Town mananger Mark Cooper joins an elite list of Glovers’ managers. He will take charge of his 100th first-team fixture for the club when his side take on Dagenham & Redbridge at Huish Park.

With 99 on the clock, and a win rate percentage of a tiny bit over 43%, he sits second in a ‘Post-Gary Johnson’s First Stint in Charge’ table for games won ratio – for those wondering only Josh Staunton’s perfect one from one can boast a better percentage.

Presuming he sees the season out in charge at Huish Park, he’ll overtake Darren Sarll’s 134 games, and if he sees out his contract in full, he’ll have skipped past both Terry Skiverton (157) and Darren Way (152) for league games in charge.

By the end of October, Cooper will also have passed two complete years as Yeovil boss. All of these numbers are, in the grand scheme of football in 2024, impressive. But that doesn’t begin to tell the full story.

Like his predecessors, he’ll (hopefully) make a fortune telling the full story of his time at YTFC, but I don’t think anyone quite saw the rollercoaster that would unravel when we first saw Cooper in the stand at Oldham Athletic, with Chris Hargreaves’ tenure destined to end.

He said he was there to watch son Charlie, who appeared as 74th-minute substitute in a 2-0 win for the Latics and who would eventually follow his Dad to Somerset. Could they have predicted what would follow their arrival?

He watched from the stands as the Glovers drew with Maidstone United the day after after he was announced as manager and suffered more late heartbreak when a late goal led to a defeat at Woking in his first match on the touchline. But after that, he managed us through a seven-game unbeaten run over the Christmas and New Year period.

He promised a “heavy possession style” with “a team that likes to get crosses in the box” in his first pre-match press conference. 100 games later, it feels like he’s kept that promise.

The back end of the 2022/23 season was a car crash off-the-field – we’ve talked the back legs off this stuff and don’t need to again – but one shining light in all the darkenss was the way that Josh Staunton as captain and Mark Cooper fronted up time and time again.

Not a single Yeovil fan would have blamed Cooper, or anyone associated with YTFC, from walking away after the Wrexham game that confirmed the Glovers’ relegation to the National League South – Cooper’s first-ever on his managerial CV, albeit one with a huge asterisk attached to it.

He said he “could have walked away six weeks ago”, but said he wanted to stay, he felt a loyalty and would “love to” rebuild the football club.

Following his takeover new owner Martin Hellier offered Cooper the stability to get on and build a team capable of bouncing back.

A massive club in a relatively small division, needed more than just money throwing at it. We may have had one of the biggest budgets in the National League South, but getting the people right was was crucial to preparing a side for challenges we had not seen since our last stint in regional football back in the 1990s.

We were big fish in a small pond. Cooper knew that and knew that we weren’t going to blitz teams away, but were still good enough to win games and entertain people. We did just that.

The unbeaten run that got everything up and running needed more than it’s fair share of patience, as late goals (mainly from Morgan Williams) were the norm. We kept the ball moving, sometimes sideways, sometimes backwards – but actually when you think about it, football is a simple game, you can’t concede if you have possession of the ball. 

With the help of assistant manager Chris Todd and first-team coach Marcus Stewart the playing staff was built, and then tweaked as the season goes on.  Will Buse out, Joe Day in, Zac Bell out, Michael Smith in.

Tough decisions, ones that many of us from the outside were shocked by, like Josh Staunton not getting the game time and eventually leaving the club, on paper made no sense. 

But when you look back now, and the defensive solidity that came from Smith-Wannell-Williams-Whittle built our title charge.

What we see in press conferences is a Mark Cooper with his guard up sometimes, a little shielded, maybe a little tense, with a professional head on – cards close to the chest with only a few nuggets offered out.

That same steely approach even creeps into warm ups, we’ve seen back fours warm up in a certain way only to start the game with wing-backs.

But off camera, off the record, he’s a carefully considered football man, someone who cares deeply, and can laugh and smile and joke about a referee’s decision – they are jokes, right, Mark?

I consider myself fortunate to have spent a few of those moments after games in Cooper’s company. After Wrexham, Boreham Wood when things are bad, after Boston this season when things were good and plenty more besides – at some point in the next 100 games, I think I’d like to see that side to Mark Cooper show itself a little more.

We saw it (just) after Worthing away, where he ended up in a Rhys Rosser hug and let out – by his standards – a roar of delight. Watch the HP Source after the Truro City win that secured our return to the National League Premier at the first time of asking. He tells his team they need to beat Dover Athletic in the next match, but then invites them to “go f***ing mental”.

He took very little limelight, almost apologetically lifting the trophy to a packed out Huish Park. But I really don’t think any of us should take lightly how he turned a losing dressing room into a winning one.

It was a Huish Park that wasn’t used to being packed out, by the way. You can improve the matchday experience as much as you like, add as many bars and entertainment channels as you like, if the results on the pitch aren’t there – the DJ is playing to nobody.

He has, at times, asked for more from Yeovil fans, particularly those behind the dug out – “Gerrit for’ard Cooper” they demand – but he’s a man of principals, we’ve only ever ‘parked the bus’ once that I can remember – Notts County away, the most ridiculous of 0-0 draws.

Players have come and gone, some have really shone, others have barely blinked an eyelid before their time is up.

But each one of them either knows before hand, or finds out very quickly, what it’s like being a Mark Cooper player. Some get it, Matt Worthington (who worked with Cooper before) and Frank Nouble (who Cooper was desperate to sign the season we went down) stand out under Cooper. Jake Wannell, Sam Pearson, Jordan Young and others have all grown under Cooper, too.

With plenty of time still left on Cooper’s contract, there’s no sense of him being done with his YTFC story yet. It’s one thing being the manager that gets us back into a National division from the depths of regional football, but someone WILL be the coach who takes us back to the Football League.

That might not be this season, maybe not next either, but with the right backing, the right support around him, I’d argue Mark Cooper is well-qualified to do that. He remains the only manager to be promoted from both regional divisions and the National League Premier.

The asterisk I referred to before, the one that adorns the only relegation on his CV, now acts merely as a coaster to rest the National League South trophy on.

100 Games in charge is no mean feat, especially given the path that took us to where we are now.

Thank you for your service, Mark… just one more thing… “Gerrit for’ard, will ‘ee”