Cooper ‘Very Disappointed’ After Loss

Although his afternoon began with a rapturous homecoming, Neale Cooper’s on-pitch homecoming wasn’t as warming – and he was left ‘very disappointed’.

It should have been a day where the team, picked for the first time by Cooper since return, flourished in an attacking line up and played to impress their new boss. That didn’t happen, however.

Instead Pools lost 2-1 to Scunthorpe and the Scot was left hurt: ”That wasn’t good enough today, I was really disappointed,’ he told the club’s online service, Pools Player.

‘I enjoyed the welcome from the fans but football is all about results and today I was disappointed at the overall performance.

‘I didn’t enjoy watching that. It’s alright having a late flurry at the end but we were passing the ball and just hoping that someone would create something.

‘I thought the top man was Luke James,’ he continued, ‘and he looked the most likely to create something out of everyone.

‘The five goals I have seen us concede in the two games so far have been bad goals and schoolboy errors – they are all preventable, certainly the two today were.

‘We were second to everything – we were nearly getting there. But that’s not good enough.

‘We have to be a lot better than that.’

Pools have now lost nine on the bounce at home, and although the team are clearly devoid of confidence, Cooper doesn’t see that as an excuse: ‘They can’t keep thinking about how many games we’ve lost at home, that’s all rubbish – they’ve just got to play better.’