Nick Loughlin, of The Northern Echo, pays tribute to Neale Cooper, the former Hartlepool United manager who sadly died this week.
There’s been a lot of angst around Hartlepool United in recent times. Nothing, however, has affected the club and its fans as deeply as the death of Neale Cooper.
Twice the club’s manager, Cooper died on Monday aged 54 following a fall in his home city. He may have been a son of Aberdeen, but he was an adopted son of Hartlepool. “We are heartbroken,” said a club statement.
From the moment the big, effervescent Scot with an infectious smile and a joviality about him that few possess, arrived at Pools as boss in 2003, when he had two seasons of unprecedented success, to his exit following a disappointing second spell in 2011, Cooper took to Hartlepool and Hartlepool took to him. No manager locked into the town like he did. Not even Brian Clough.
Connection
The football his team played was scintillating. It was manic from the off, his first game was a 4-3 win at Peterborough, Pools coming back from 3-1 down on the opening day of the 2003-04 campaign.
They beat Grimsby 8-1, lost 6-4 at home to Wrexham, saw off Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 and twice made the League One play-offs. Pools took almost 11,000 fans to an FA Cup tie at Sunderland. Heady times.
He left Pools in the days before the final league game of the 2004-05 season. Feeling the pressure of another play-off push, he was relieved of his duties.
Pools made the final at the Millennium Stadium against Sheffield Wednesday. He wasn’t there, but it was his work, his team, his players.
Skipper Micky Barron admitted: “We got to the play-off final in Cardiff, and he wasn’t there but it was his team. He wasn’t there, but we spoke the night before the game with him and afterwards too. If you have someone in charge like him, then you can over-achieve.
“He had a connection with the town. You would see him having a beer, wanted to talk to people and wanted to talk about the club. He lived in the town and liked being in and around the people.”
Cooper was a people’s person. The warmth of the tributes from across football said it all. He was an unassuming person, who probably didn’t realise how much he was loved.
Overwhelmed
The first time he came back to Hartlepool for a talk-in with supporters five years after his first exit, he was so overwhelmed by the reception he phoned his mum back in Aberdeen to tell her.
Part of the great Dons side of the early Eighties, Cooper was Alex Ferguson’s hatchet man in midfield. They beat Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983 and Real sent a letter this week expressing their condolences. A classy tribute.
On the touchline, Cooper was a manic character, putting as much effort in as his players. Passion? He had it in spades. While his second spell as boss didn’t work out, no one turned against him. He was still up on a pedestal.
Barron, his assistant manager second time round, admitted: “Neale will be remembered as the manager of the best team we ever had. Away from football I remember him as a man who cared about his players, who wanted his players to go above what they could.
“Even when he was upset with us, we knew he would soon be smiling again. He will be missed deeply.”
