Paul Cook (footballer)

For other people named Paul Cook, see Paul Cook (disambiguation).

Paul Cook

Personal information
Full name	Paul Anthony Cook
Date of birth	22 February 1967 (1967-02-22)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Centre midfield
Club information
Current club	Accrington Stanley (Manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1983–1984	Marine	?	(?)
1984–1988	Wigan Athletic	83	(14)
1988–1989	Norwich City	6	(0)
1989–1994	Wolverhampton Wanderers	193	(19)
1994–1996	Coventry City	37	(3)
1996–1997	Tranmere Rovers	60	(4)
1997–1999	Stockport County	49	(3)
1999	→ Burnley (loan)	12	(1)
1999–2003	Burnley	134	(11)
2001–2002	→ Wigan Athletic (loan)	6	(0)
2003–2006	Accrington Stanley	62	(1)
Total		642	(56)
Teams managed
2006–2007	Southport
2007–2012	Sligo Rovers
2012-	Accrington Stanley
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Paul Anthony Cook (born 22 February 1967 in Liverpool) is an English football manager and former player, who has managed Sligo Rovers since 2007, before returning to Accrington Stanley in 2012. He had a lengthy career, playing for a number of clubs in the Football League as a left-sided or central midfielder before retiring from the game in 2006. He began his management career at Southport.

Playing career

Cook began his career at his local non-league team Marine before being quickly signed up by Wigan Athletic, where he featured in almost one hundred games in a four-year spell. Cook then had a brief and unsuccessful spell at Norwich City before moving to the Midlands to play for Wolverhampton Wanderers for £250,000.

He was a very popular player during his time at Wolves, both with the fans and his team-mates and became known for his deadly and accurate left foot. After over 190 appearances for Wolves over five seasons in the second tier, he made the short journey to Premier League Coventry City.

He played the majority of the club's games in his first season (1994-95) but fell from favour during the following campaign, where he made only three appearances. In February 1996, he was sold to Tranmere Rovers for £250,000.

Whilst at Tranmere he became a key member of the team, playing sixty games in just eighteen months. In October 1997, Tranmere accepted a bid of £250,000 from Stockport County and so regained the fee they had paid for Cook in the first place. After twelve months at County, Cook began to be regarded as 'too old', despite being just 32. This led to his move to Burnley, initially on loan but fully signing in July 1999 to play under Stan Ternent.

Cook experienced an "Indian summer" to his career, making 130 league appearances over a four year spell. During this period he established excellent understandings with many players, especially Lee Briscoe and the two often devised new free-kick routines to catch Division One defences off-guard.

After a falling out with the manager, Cook went on loan to one of his old clubs, Wigan Athletic, but made just six appearances before he was re-called to again take his place in the starting line up at Turf Moor. Cook left Burnley at the end of the 2003 season, at the same time as Andy Payton. The two players got a standing ovation from the fans for their contributions to the club.

Defying doubts about his fitness and age, Cook signed for non-league team Accrington Stanley and went on to become a first team regular in their push for promotion to the Football League. This target was finally achieved in the 2005/06 season when Stanley were crowned Champions. Having achieved this aim, Cook finally retired after almost 600 league appearances for nine different teams.

After the end of the 2005/06 season, Cook was granted a testimonial by Accrington as a thank-you for his hard work. It was played on 2 May 2006 at the Interlink Express (now the Fraser Eagle) Stadium, Accrington against a Burnley Select XI featuring old team-mates Dean West, Lenny Johnrose, Ian Cox, Kevin Ball and son Liam.

Management career

Cook was appointed manager of Conference side Southport on 13 June 2006, a post he was sacked from in January 2007 following defeat at Northwich Victoria.

He became manager of Sligo Rovers on 27 April 2007, taking over from Rob McDonald, who resigned before the start of the season. At the press conference when he was unveiled he stated that he was from Liverpool and that he will not have anything to do with any journalist from the Irish Sun, (due to the lies printed about Liverpool supporters during the Hillsborough disaster). He guided Sligo to a credible 6th place league finish in his first season. His second year (2008) saw him guide Sligo to fourth in the league and thus secure a UEFA Cup place.

He departed in January 2009 by mutual consent, but soon returned just weeks later.

In his third season, under sever financial constraints, he guided Sligo to sixth place after a time when it appeared the Bit O'Red appeared certain relegation candidates. In addition, Cook guided Sligo to the final of the FAI Cup which took place on the 22nd November 2009. Sligo lost 2-1 to Sporting Fingal despite holding a one goal lead with seven minutes remaining.

Cook's first silverware as Sligo manager came in September 2010, after a 1-0 win over Monaghan United in the final of the League Cup. In November 2010, he guided Sligo Rovers to win the 2010 FAI Cup Final, 2-0 in a penalty shoot-out against Shamrock Rovers. In November 2011, he again brought Sligo Rovers to win the 2011 FAI Cup Final, which for the second year running went to penalties. Sligo Rovers beat Shelbourne 4-1.

He spoke with Accrington Stanley and these talks eventually concluded with Cook announcing his move back to his old playing club.

Statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Southport		12 August 2006	3 January 2007	&1000000000000002800000028	&100000000000000050000005	&100000000000000080000008	&1000000000000001500000015	&1000000000000001785999917.86
Sligo Rovers		27 April 2007	13 February 2012	&1000000000000009200000092	&1000000000000003900000039	&1000000000000002800000028	&1000000000000002500000025	&1000000000000004239000042.39
Accrington Stanley		13 February 2012	present	&100000000000000060000006	&100000000000000000000000	&100000000000000020000002	&100000000000000040000004	&0&100000000000000000000000.00

External links

• Paul Cook (footballer) on Playerhistory.com
• Paul Cook career stats at Soccerbase