Source: Northern_Echo
Cooper signs new deal with Darlington
Mark Cooper has today put pen-to-paper on a new one-year deal at Darlington.[LNB] His assistant Richard Dryden has also committed his future to Quakers by signing up for the 2011-12 season.[LNB] Now the Quakers boss is urging fans to get behind the club as they look to mount a promotion drive back to the Football League this summer.[LNB] Cooper takes his side to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final on Saturday May 7, with more than 6,000 tickets already sold.[LNB] He said: We know what we need to do to strengthen and the fact we're on board early on will only help when it comes to preparing for next season.[LNB] We've already made some in-roads and we'll be working on targets over the next few months.[LNB] "Every season you set yourself goals and targets and you want to achieve something. We're on the verge of achieving something and it would be great to end the season with a win at Wembley.[LNB] But we're also looking at this long-term and we're already planning for next season so that this time next year we're in a much stronger position in the league and hopefully walking about the chance of winning the league and going to Wembley again![LNB] Stevenage did it last year and there's no reason we can't if we can get the right kind of players in.[LNB] I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have signed the new contract if I didn't think we had a chance of doing that.[LNB] Now we've signed up for next season we need our supporters to get on board and the sooner the better.[LNB] Meanwhile, Darlington chairman Raj Singh is delighted to have finally secured Cooper and Dryden.[LNB] I was never in any doubt Mark would sign the contract because, as I've said before, we've developed a very strong working relationship over the last season, he said.[LNB] I'm also very pleased Richard has signed his deal, as Mark's assistant. Everyone who follows football knows how important the manager's number two is.[LNB] I speak with Richard on a regular basis and he's always come across very well. He seems to be very happy in his role at the club, which pleases me.[LNB] Mark has already identified a number of potential targets and we're already working on these, and if we can get the players we're after I'm confident our fans will be excited by them.[LNB] They will certainly improve the current squad and will hopefully put us in good shape for a really big promotion push next season.[LNB] All-in-all, we couldn't be in better shape right now. We seem to be getting stronger with every month, but we also know where we need to strengthen, so it all bodes well for a really positive summer[LNB]
