Source: Northern_Echo
Cooper back from his marathon scouting mission
MARK Cooper admits his long-distance scouting mission this week underlines how seriously he is taking Darlington's approach to the FA Cup. Quakers are at home to Bristol Rovers tomorrow in the first round and, as his side were without a game in midweek, Cooper made a 750- mile round trip to watch the League One team in action at Plymouth Argyle. If you get an opportunity to watch your opposition play I think you have to take it. As we didn't have a game on Tuesday I went to see them, it had to be done, said Cooper, who saw the Pirates lose 3-1. We'll pay full respect to Bristol Rovers. They're doing fine in League One, they're not far off the play-offs. I watched them other night and they've got some really good individuals. Will Hoskins, Jo Kuffor and Jeff Hughes have all played at a higher level and they'll take a lot of beating. But every year we see shocks and I don't see why, if we're at 100 per cent, we won't get a result. It's a massive opportunity for the club to get through to the second round and then you're one game away from potentially playing Man United. More importantly for me, I want to keep the run going. We don't want to get beat, we want to keep the momentum going and take that into the league. The next game for us is always the most important and if we get through it would be a fantastic achievement. There's no pressure on us. Nobody really expects us to win so we should be able to play with a bit of freedom. Having this week released reserve keepers Dan Lowson and Christopher Oldfield, Quakers are likely to call on their youth team keeper to act as back-up tomorrow. Kelvin Jack is still on loan at Kettering, so Nick Thompson will step into the breach. We might have to put the youth goalkeeper on the bench, said Cooper. He's done fine in the youth team so I'd have no qualms about putting him on the bench if I have to. We had a goalkeeper training with us this morning and we're looking at one or two other options but there's no mad panic. Meanwhile, midfielder Paul Terry is undergoing rehabilitation at Chelsea after undergoing an operation on his cruciate knee ligament injury. Terry, brother of Chelsea captain John, sustained the injury in Quakers' most recent home game, against Hayes &Yeading last month and Cooper hopes he will return before the end of the season. Cooper said: He's had the operation and he's now doing a month's rehab at Chelsea where he'll get the use of their facilities which are fantastic. He'll have a month with them, then come back to us and hopefully he'll be back playing around March or April.