Former Shrewsbury Town striker reveals rejection took years to recover from

The former Town striker, who scored 15 goals in 48 league appearances for his hometown club, says he never recovered after then manager Paul Simpson let him go.

Cooke’s last appearance for Salop came on March 29 in the 1-0 home defeat to Bury, and it was also the last performance of his professional career with him not featuring in the final six weeks of the league campaign.

And speaking on the TurfCast Podcast, Cooke revealed he offered to stay around in Shropshire to do his coaching badges but said it was not something Simpson wanted.

“My whole plan was to finish my career at Shrewsbury and do my badges there,” Cooke said.

“Paul Simpson came in at the time and wanted to go a different way, but I never recovered from him letting me go there.

“I said ‘Keep me around the dressing room and part of the team’.

“My Plan B was coaching, but be around the side, bring me on as a sub in the last 10 minutes, be a character in the dressing room.

“I would go and do my badges and coach the kids and work my way up and he just went ‘Nah, move on...’ and I never recovered from that.

“It took me eight years to recover. I don’t know whether he saw me as a threat, and sometimes managers don’t fancy you at the time or they don’t want you around.

“You don’t know what it is, but that was it, and it took me eight years to recover from that.”

Cooke, who started in the League Two play-off defeat at Wembley in 2007, had a distinguished playing career making more than 400 professional appearances for seven different clubs.

His most successful period came at Burnley, where he made over 150 appearances, but also featured spells at Stoke, Bradford and Darlington before moving to Town as a free transfer in July 2006. And despite the many ups and downs a footballing career is likely to throw your way, Cooke felt particularly scarred by the manner he left Shrews.

“Massively,” when asked if that was the low point of his career.

“I managed to do what I wanted to do at Shrewsbury, but I just never recovered from it.

“I took a bit of a break from football, and then I tried to get back in it, but it was too late by then.

“What happened is that dampened my confidence so badly I did not believe in myself.

“It is like everything I ever worked for and achieved was killed in one second.

“I think I could have gone and signed for a non-league side just down the road as Telford United offered me a deal.

“I lost my way for years and years and years I just did not know what to do.”