Ciaran Kelly is Paul Cook's cup final hero

15 November 2010 17:21
It may well have gone by unnoticed in East Lancashire but former Claret Paul Cook is enjoying a very successful season in Ireland as manager of Airtricity League club Sligo Rovers. Sligo are a club with a number of connections with Burnley, certainly as far as managers are concerned. Former Burnley boss Steve Cotterill was in charge there in the mid-90s and, when he returned to England and Cheltenham, his replacement was Jimmy Mullen.Mullen was himself replaced by Nicky Reid who would later be our physio and in 1999 the job went to Tommy Cassidy when he moved there from Glentoran.Paul Cook has now been in charge since 2007, after a time in charge at Southport and the 2010 season is proving to be a fruitful one for him and his club. Earlier in the season they won the EA Cup (their League Cup) and yesterday they added the FAI Cup in sensational style with a penalty shoot out win against Shamrock Rovers.The game, played in front of 36,000 at the new Dublin Arena, the venue for the Europa League Final, ended 0-0 after extra time and this is where goalkeeper Ciaran Kelly took centre stage with no less than four saves out of four in the subsequent penalty shoot out allowing Sligo to lift the trophy after winning that shoot out 2-0.The win prevented Shamrock Rovers from completing the double and manager Cook, who is being tipped to take over a bigger club in Ireland, said: "I am delighted for Ciaran as he has been such a great player for us. But today is not about one man; it's about the whole team and the whole club. You can see what this win means to the people of Sligo."

Source: FOOTYMAD