Cooks well beaten in first friendly
With manager Andy Marks away on holiday the Cooks were left in the charge of Assistants Mick Donnelly and James Alger for our opening pre-season fixture.
The Cooks welcomed Leighton Town FC to Compton Park on Tuesday and were promptly made aware that there needs to be a massive improvement before the season starts. Our visitors were hungrier and worked twice as hard throughout the game and that was clearly reflected in the full time score. But it was the number of individual errors that eventually was our undoing in a humbling 6-0 home defeat.
The Cooks started the game with almost the same team that finished last season but with the exception of a makeshift defensive duo of recent recruits Bobby Leah and Robbie Bushell who both were out run by the lively front two of Leighton Town. There were plenty of cobwebs out there as touches were poor and the Cooks could not keep control of the ball and gave away possession far to many times in the opening encounters, putting ourselves on the back foot and we soon found ourselves 1-0 down after Keeper Anthony O'Connor could only punch away a cross as far as the edge of the area and Neil Lazarus drove his header home into an empty net.
By half time the score line was 3-0 to our visitors as again slack marking and the inability to clear our lines gifted the reds two more goals.
The second half saw an almost entirely different team play as Alger and Donno rang the changes in order for them to see some of the trialists on offer but there was little improvement as again our visitors pressed on. Returning keeper George McClellan was lobbed from 20 yards for the reds fourth and was left rooted to the spot as a cracking free kick made the score 5-0, to compound his nightmare of a night he was beaten from a close range header following good work from Leighton's right winger whipping in a cross for one of their substitutes to nod home.
One of the only positives was an appearance for Kieran Tarry at right back, the young full back who has come out of the Rushden & Diamonds academy looked assured and in 30 minutes showed more drive and determination than we had showed in the whole game, linking up well with Dan Thomason on the right flank and forcing Leighton's backline to turn.
The Cooks have to pick themselves up now as we face another tough game on Thursday night against a Histon XI and then on Saturday a double header away to Burton Park Wanderers. |
