 |
Date and Place of Birth 2nd January 1974 - SHREWSBURY
Transfers to and from Burnley from NEWTOWN - 1st August 1995 (£40,000) to STOKE CITY - 1st December 2000 (£300,000)
First and Last Burnley Games BRISTOL ROVERS (a) - 29th August 1995 sub: replaced Tony Philliskirk
CREWE ALEXANDRA (h) - 31st October 2000 replaced by Ronnie Jepson
Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- STOKE CITY, PUSAN I.CONS, BRADFORD CITY, DARLINGTON (loan), SHREWSBURY TOWN |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1995/96 | 10(13) | 5 | 0(1) | - | - | - | 2(2) | - | 12(16) | 5 |
| 1996/97 | 19(12) | 12 | 1(2) | - | 1(2) | 1 | 1 | - | 22(16) | 13 |
| 1997/98 | 26(8) | 16 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 35(8) | 20 |
| 1998/99 | 36 | 9 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 38 | 10 |
| 1999/2000 | 33(3) | 7 | 4 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 37(3) | 8 |
| 2000/01 | 10(1) | 2 | - | - | 4 | 3 | - | - | 14(1) | 5 |
| Total | 134(37) | 51 | 7(3) | 2 | 8(2) | 6 | 9(2) | 2 | 158(44) | 61 |
Profile by Tony Scholes
Andy Cooke was something of a surprise signing in the summer of 1995 following Burnley's relegation from what was then the First Division (now the Championship).
There had been two notable departures in Steve Davis and John Mullin, who had gone to Luton and Sunderland respectively, and Jimmy Mullen brought in just the two replacements. Peter Swan arrived from Plymouth to fill Davis' position whilst he turned to Cooke for young striker Mullin.
Just 21 himself, the Shrewsbury born Cooke had been playing his football in the League of Wales and making something of a name for himself with his goalscoring exploits. It was enough to persuade Mullin and Burnley and so, in a £40,000 transfer, Cooke became a Burnley player.
His signing wasn't heralded with fanfares with most fans wondering what on earth we were doing spending the Mullin money on a non-leaguer when we desperately needed an experienced striker to start scoring some goals.
Those questions intensified when we started the season with Tony Philliskirk and Kurt Nogan, neither of whom had, at that time, suggested they might be an answer.
Having not featured in the first three games, Cooke then made his debut as a substitute at Bristol Rovers and after three games coming off the bench he got his first start, scoring our goal in a 1-1 draw at York.
He was just beginning to become a fixture in the first team match day squad but the departure of Mullen didn't help and he found himself out of the picture mostly during the run in as Liam Robinson got the nod from new manager Heath.
Even so he'd had a decent first season although it didn't set himself up for the 1996/97 season. He was soon out in the cold and once Paul Barnes arrived it was very much a Nogan/Barnes partnership with Cooke hardly getting a look in.
He got back in the side once Nogan had made his exit to Preston and despite having started less than half of our league games he ended the season with twelve league goals which included a hat trick on the last day of the season against Watford.
The 1997/98 season - known as 'The Waddle Season' - proved to be his most productive in terms of goals. He reached 20 goals that season with 16 of them in the league and this at a rate of around a goal every two games.
They included another hat trick in a 7-2 home win against York but none were more important than the two he got on the last day of the season against Plymouth, goals that ensured we weren't relegated back into the bottom division.
The second half of that season saw him paired with a new partner in Andy Payton who had been signed from Huddersfield in a swap deal with Barnes, and for the next two seasons that partnership proved vital to Burnley.
Cooke had to play second fiddle to Payton in terms of goalscoring but he was every bit as important to the team. Even though he only scored 7 league goals in the promotion season it was perhaps his best season in Burnley colours. Payton himself was always quick to praise the contribution made by Cooke.
With Payton very much out of favour at the start of the 2000/01 season with the Clarets back in what is now the Championship, Cooke had a new partner in Phil Gray. It didn't last; Gray was axed after five games and Cooke after nine.
After the 5-0 thrashing at Nottingham Forest in October 2000 he was brought back for a home game against Crewe. He scored and we won 1-0. He was substituted with six minutes to go as Ronnie Jepson came on.
It hardly seemed significant but it was to prove his last appearance for Burnley. That game was played on the last day of October and on the first day of December he was transferred to Stoke City in a £300,000 deal.
Cooke was ready to go. He'd lost his place again in the team. Burnley had brought in Paul Robinson on loan from WImbledon, with a view to taking him permanently, and had signed Ian Moore. Cooke was clearly going to struggle to get much football.
At the time of the move he said: "Leaving Burnley after all those years takes a bit of getting used to, but it wasn't a massive decision, even after everything that's happened over the years.
"Burnley was my first professional club and it's been brilliant that it was such a massive club and the things we've achieved, but the way things have gone recently it was probably right for a change. Some people in that position might have just sat around but I just want to play first team football."
He added: "I've got a lot of friends at Burnley with the players and some past players and I've been very lucky with the fans. Over five-and-a-half seasons I have had a very good rapport with the crowd.
"I've got a lot of good things to take from Burnley. I wouldn't change a day of it and I'd like to thank everyone."
It was the end of his Burnley career, but there could have been a reprise a few years later but he opted not to return.
He spent three years at Stoke during which he made a return to Turf Moor for a game. He received a fantastic reception from the Burnley fans and it was the Clarets who came out on top with a 2-1 win.
The summer of 2003 saw him make a massive career change when he decided to move to South Korea and sign for Pusan I.Cons. It didn't work out quite as well as expected and he spent just a season and a half there and that's when the opportunity came to return to Burnley.
It was January 2005; we had the smallest of squads with Robbie Blake having just left to make matters worse, and manager Steve Cotterill, who had worked with Cooke at Stoke, offered him a deal until the end of the season.
He was tempted but instead decided a longer term deal at Bradford City was better. A season and a half there, which also included a loan at Darlington, ended in the summer of 2006 when he got a dream move home to Shrewsbury Town.
He had two years there, which included a play off final appearance in 2007, but it all looked set to end in January 2008 when he agreed a deal with Notts County. That would have seen him contracted until the end of the 2008/09 season but a late hitch stopped the move and just three months later he was released by Shrewsbury.
He trained with Kidderminster but wanted league football. Unfortunately he didn't receive any offers and in August 2008, at the age of 34, he announced his retirement from the game.
Cooke is still involved in the game, working as an agent, but his career saw him play over 350 league games for his five clubs.
It looked a massive gamble by Jimmy Mullen in the summer of 1995 when we paid £40,000 for him. It was a gamble that certainly paid off. He scored some vital goals for Burnley; turned in some excellent performances and proved, in his time at Turf Moor, to be a hugely popular player with the fans.
In November 2011, Cooke returned to the game as Director of Football at Market Drayton, again signing for Jimmy Mullen who just a few weeks earlier had accepted the role of part time caretaker manager.
Links