It is a year to the day since Mark Cooper was appointed manager of Yeovil Town.
Having been handed a two-and-a-half year contract by then-chairman <NAME REDACTED>, the boss picked up five wins, 13 draws and 14 defeats as the club dropped out of the National League amid off-the-field turmoil at Huish Park.
Following his arrival, the Glovers lost just two of their first 11 matches with Cooper in charge and, following the announcement of the ‘stewardship’ of SU Glovers, the group led by now-York City owner Matt Uggla, at the end of February they went on a disastrous run winning just once.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah ahead of this weekend’s home game with Braintree Town, Cooper was asked if last season’s relegation had been his hardest job in football.
Cooper said: “I have had some difficult jobs and all managers will have periods in their career where it seems an impossible task and (last season) was about trying to maintain your dignity and tell as much truth as you could and hoping things would turn around.
“That’s not for the individuals but for the club, town and supporters and hopefully they are seeing I am not as bad a manager that they might have thought I was at certain periods.
“I will only feel vindicated if we achieve our end goal which is to get promoted. When you look back at when I came in, it was a really positive start and we never looked in any danger of getting relegated until there was a potential change in ownership which eventually didn’t happen.
“When that happened we didn’t win another game (well, just one, Mark), so you can draw whatever comparisons you want but I am confident we would not have got relegated. That is water under the bridge and we have to go forward.”
In National League South this season, Cooper has picked up 12 wins, two draws, and two defeats from the opening 16 matches in all competitions.
He added: “When you are allowed to do your job to the best of your ability you feel really good about it and I am really enjoying it.
“We have brought some good players to the club and the owner (Martin Hellier) has let me get on with it and trusted me to put a squad together and I think you can see that in the way we are playing and the results we are getting.
“But, you always know that in football there’s always a slap around the face waiting for you around the corner, and we have to make sure we get all the small details right and we are relentless in the pursuit of where we want to get to.”
You can listen to the chat with Mark Cooper in full on BBC Sounds – here – it starts around 22 minutes in to the show.