Cooper brushes off any thoughts of Kettering

24 September 2010 09:41
Darlington chairman Raj Singh will be able to sleep a lot easier tonight after his manager Mark Cooper made it known he is fully committed to the club and not interested in quitting Quakers for his former club.[LNB] Singh rued, in his programme notes prior to Darlington's Blue Square Bet Premier League contest with Luton, he has not enjoyed the best of fortunes with his managerial appointments since he took charge at the club.[LNB] Colin Todd, Steve Staunton, Simon Davey and Ryan Kidd have all, for one reason or another, been and gone in less than 12 months before the Teesside businessman installed Cooper in The Northern Echo Arena hotseat.[LNB] And, after several failed attempts, the 45-year-old Quakers chief now believes he has finally got the right man to take the club forward.[LNB] Now we have Mark and he's tried and tested at this level, said Singh. His knowledge of clubs and players is second to none.[LNB] We were at Kettering last month (where Quakers drew 0-0) and people were coming up to me, telling me we had a good manager.[LNB] They say third time lucky, but hopefully it's fifth time lucky.[LNB] Kettering, of course, were one of Cooper's former teams.[LNB] The Darlington boss left the non-league outfit for a crack at Championship football with Peterborough United at the turn of the year after two successful years as Poppies manager.[LNB] Kettering earlier this week dispensed with the services of Lee Harper and are now without a manager.[LNB] But when asked if there was anything in whether he is to return, the 42-year-old moved quickly to quash the rumour.[LNB] I am happy here, insisted the Darlington boss. The chairman has been absolutely fantastic; everybody has been brilliant to me and I enjoy living in Durham.[LNB] In football sometimes you don't know what is happening from one day to the next but I'm perfectly happy here.[LNB] Whether the fans are happy with me is another matter but we've lost one game in ten. I don't think Darlington are used to that too often and long may it continue.[LNB] It wasn't a real wrench to leave (Kettering) as I had a crack at managing in the Championship.[LNB] It was time for me to move on then. But I'm at Darlington now and I'm really enjoying my time here.[LNB] We've got a really good set of players; some good staff around me and it's a proper good football club.[LNB]

Source: Northern_Echo