Cook: I Really Enjoyed It, From Start to Finish Saturday, 10th Jul 2021 15:54 Boss Paul Cook enjoyed the Blues’ first pre-season run-out at Dartford with his side 1-0 victors via Tawanda Chirewa’s second-half goal. Town fielded a strong side in the first period, including all six summer additions, and what was largely and U18s team in the second. “I really enjoyed it, from start to finish,” Cook said. “Obviously we’ve had a few different issues at the club in the latter part of the week that’s really affected the squad and the numbers. “Today was a real opportunity, the first-team lads were playing 45 minutes and we were very, very young in the second half, and I was so pleased for the young lads to come on and win the game. “That’s what they’ve done, they’ve seen a game out, they’ve won a game 1-0. For the first-team lads, we’d expect them to play well, we’d expect them to grow and do better. “I was quite pleased with us to a point. It’s always difficult with your first 45 minutes but we will get stronger and better as the pre-season goes on.” Regarding those issues affecting the U23s, whose friendly at Bury Town today was postponed, he said: “There’s some Covid, the club will make an announcement. As you know, we’ve got to adhere to stuff properly, but it’s probably cost us the guts of a lot of players, so all of a sudden we were asking youth lads to go out there against a very strong Dartford team. “Dartford were excellent in the first half and I’m sure Dartford will have an excellent season.” Cook was pleased to see fans back with supporters able to watch a senior away game for the first time since February 2020. “It was great, you could see yourselves, the atmosphere,” he said. “I’m delighted we’ve won. Football’s about fans travelling, a few beers, enjoying the game, watching your team play, and also the disappointment of travelling home when you’ve lost. That’s part and parcel of it. “The atmosphere, it was great for the young lads to go and acknowledge the Ipswich fans at the end because it was a really proud moment for some of them.” He added: “The best way to start a season, for supporters to go to a game and to turn up at Portman Road, we want [them] to be excited, we want [them] to know you can hear the shouts from the bench, we want to get after everyone, that’s how we play. We don’t take a backwards step and will not take a backwards step. “We’ll get beaten, we’ll get flattened sometimes, but we’ll keep on marching forwards.” Regarding what his new signings will bring, he said: “I think time will show that. I think for me at the end of the game there, for our supporters, I’ll always acknowledge the fans before the game and then after the game it’s for the players. “Sometimes you don’t have to win to be clapped off by your supporters, you must show a desire to win football games. “For me today, looking to our left and seeing all the Ipswich fans standing on their feet clapping loudly was probably more for the young lads more than anything, but I still felt quite proud of that.” Kane Vincent-Young, who underwent shoulder surgery at the end of last season, and Jon Nolan, who has picked up a calf issue having suffered with a knee problem towards the end of last season missed out today. “The injuries, Kane was very much precautionary, Jon’s in the latter stages of coming back from a calf, so they should be back soon,” Cook said. “I’m not a manager who wants to play injured players, I like fitness, I like us being positive, I want strength in the team. “To do that, we’ve got to train very hard, daily and regularly, and we’ve got to turn up knowing our jobs. “For me, injured lads, they’ll only get injured again. It’s been a trait of the club previously with lads coming back and in and out, it gets boring. We just want an atmosphere at the club where you come in, you work very hard and you go on the pitch and try your best.” With so much change at the club, gelling all the new players will be one of the major tasks dueing pre-season, however, Cook says the Blues aren’t the only side in that position. “I think it’s the same for a few other clubs in the league, Wigan are the same, Portsmouth, Sunderland, there’s plenty of other clubs,” he said. “As you know, we haven’t finished signing players, there will be players coming into this club. Integrating new lads can be difficult. We might start the season a little bit bumpy, but there are 46 games in a league campaign. “And at the end of the season, league tables don’t tell any lies and hopefully we’ll be in the correct positions.”
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