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“I make no apologies that I’m going to be going for it wherever I possibly can” - Gloucester City manager Mike Cook on 4-4 thriller and his side's resilience
Trailing at half-time to promotion rivals is never ideal.
Trailing by four goals at half-time to promotion rivals is downright distressing.
Combined with a freak own goal from Jared Thompson and Storm Bert wreaking havoc, it looked like the game had already been decided, but one man in Walton wasn’t going down without a fight.
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Gloucester City manager Mike Cook could have easily accepted that it wasn’t his side's day coming in at half-time, but anyone that knows him, knows that was never an option he would consider.
Cook said: “We did change it round a bit, we persevered with a few individuals that played well from previous weeks, and I thought that we made a mistake on that.
“The players knew it wasn’t quite good enough, but I don’t think it was as much to do with the effort than the weather.
“To go in at 4-0 down was a shock, we had a constructive conversation with the lads with a lot of detail, there wasn’t any swearing and shouting and getting carried away, it was ‘we’re struggling, and we need to do something about this.’
Words of encouragement are nice and all, but they mean nothing when they aren’t put into action.
With the wind now pushing them on, and a strong showing of support from the travelling fans, as hard as they tried, City were still struggling to create chances.
Then, in the 68th minute, it all seemed to click for the Tigers.
Playing to the conditions, Dan Ball chanced a long throw with a boost from the wind, which was slammed into the net by Tyrone Duffus.
This was the kickstart that City needed to get back into the game, and Cook’s decision to bring on Kieran Phillips paid off as minutes after his introduction he claimed their second, latching on to another throw-in.
Seeing that the weather was the real opponent in this match, Joe Hanks’ corner kick was inspired, and it went all the way in to leave City one goal away from a point.
Against all odds, it happened.
In stoppage time, another long throw was sent into the box, and it just had to be Joe Hanks collecting the ball and sending it into the top corner to complete a comeback for the ages.
Reflecting on full-time, Cook said: “It was relief more than anything, it was a good performance.
“We didn’t change everybody at half time, but we wanted to make five substitutions.
“We thought consolidate for a couple minutes, see what the score is, then if we don’t concede we’re going to go for it, and we did!
“I make no apologies to anybody that I’m going to be going for it wherever I possibly can, sometimes if you consolidate, you’re just worried about not losing by six or seven, and I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about getting points.”
If there was ever a game of two halves, this one tops the lot.
