Yeovil Town midfielder Charlie Cooper has said his team-mates have to play for pride in their remaining three matches of the National League season.
The 25-year-old, who joined his father, manager Mark, at Huish Park at the start of the year, said he would “give everything” in the remaining fixtures and challenged others in the dressing room to do the same.
The Glovers’ relegation to National League South will be confirmed if they fail to win at league leaders Wrexham on Tuesday night, and even if they achieve that unlikely task, they will then need to win at home to Oldham Athletic next weekend and on the final day at Boreham Wood to stand a chance of survival.
Speaking after the 2-2 draw at Solihull Moors, he told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “It comes down to pride as a professional football player, we need to go and show that and put in maximum every day.
“I feel like I have tried to do that every day even if I am not having a good game, I will fight and scrap for everything. Everyone in the changing rooms needs to have a look at themselves and ask if they are doing everything for the team and the club.
“For the next three games we will give it everything and hopefully we can get some positive results.”
Asked about injuries he had been playing through in recent weeks, he added: “When it gets like this, you can hide behind injuries and say ‘I am not quite fit for this one’ but that is not me, if I am 50% (fit) I will give everything and I hope everyone else will do that as well. There’s a few in there that I look and think ‘I want you by my side’ and if we had 11 of them, I think we would be alright.”
Having gone 2-0 down inside half-an-hour after another gutless display in the first half at Damson Park, a second half revival saw them pull level to earn a point with goals from substitute Zanda Siziba and a stunning strike from Owen Bevan but could not do enough to nick the win.
Cooper admitted the dressing was “deflated” despite the point, adding: “We have given everything in the second half and shown that at times we can be a good team, but it’s probably been the story of the season – even though we had a ridiculous amount of chances, we have still not won the game.
“I don’t really know what happened in the first 20 minutes, people were just off the pace. We were all fired up before the game, we had some harsh words with the staff to get us fired up but we didn’t go out there and do that. There were some (more) harsh words at half-time and we had to show some personal pride, as well as pride for the club and the supporters and I felt like we did that in the second half, but on the whole it is obviously disappointing to be in this situation.
“If you out-run the opposition, you will more than likely get the result. There was a lot of energy shown out there in the second half, but it needs to be like that all the time from us as players on the pitch, every Saturday, every Tuesday, we have to put in maximum effort because if you don’t you are going to get punished for it. We did in the first 30 minutes.” What Ben Barrett would describe as “doing the dirty work” there, Charlie, and you’re quite right, there’s been a criminal lack of it on too many occasions this season.
The 25-year-old echoed the comments made by his father after the match about the perilous off-the-field situation surrounding the club’s ‘will they, won’t they?’ takeover and said he felt for the club’s staff and supporters.
He said: “I feel sorry for them because it’s not been good enough, on the pitch or off the pitch, it’s not been good enough. The club needs to come together as a whole, there’s no point in any negativity any more, I feel like it has probably been like that for a few years at this club and now it has to pick itself up and start from rock bottom and climb up the divisions. I do feel really bad for the supporters and I have done for the last seven or eight games because it has not been good enough.”
Asked about the public war of words between owner-in-waiting Matt Uggla and the manager, he admitted the situation had impacted a number of players in the dressing room during the crucial run-in towards the end of the season.
He said: “As players we see it every week on our phones after the games, we all get messages and notifications and it’s not helpful but as a player you need to block that out when you go out on the pitch. You need to think about the fans and the staff who have been involved with the club for a long time and put on a performance for them because they don’t deserve this. It needs to be sorted out because I think everyone can see things are in turmoil at the minute, so the quicker it gets sorted out the better. Everyone needs to pull together now and go in the right direction.”