Matt Healey continues the series.
Scott Cooksey was born in Birmingham on the 24th June 1972. He started out as a trainee at Derby County, then had spells at Bromsgrove Rovers, Peterborough United, Hednesford Town and Shrewsbury Town, and joined Hereford initially on loan from Gay Meadow in January 2000. He made his debut in a 1-0 win over his former club Hednesford Town. Cooksey briefly returned back to Shrewsbury, but then signed on loan for the rest of the season, and kept a significant number of clean sheets.
The Hereford United squad ahead of a charity shirt auction (c) Hereford Journal – MH Archive 2000
It was no surprise that after he left Shrewsbury Town Graham Turner signed him on a 2 year contract ahead of the 2000/2001 season.
“What a lot of people don’t know was I knew a lot about Hereford, as in the 1994/1995 season I had an unofficial two week loan as cover for Tony Pennock and Chris MacKenzie, but then got recalled back to Peterborough”
Cooksey had also played at Edgar Street as an opposition player for Hednesford Town and was well known to Hereford United manager Graham Turner, he was also part of the Hednesford Town team that scared the life out of Premier League Middlesborough in the FA Cup 4th round during the late 1990’s.
Cooksey has great respect for his former manager “Graham Turner inspired me, gave me the confidence, as a senior player he allowed me time to do my job, probably in my career the most influential manager I ever had, I felt at home at Hereford and loved the place”
The 2000/2001 season started superbly. Cooksey kept clean sheets for the first six games “I had “Tony James, Ian Wright, Matt Clarke, Chris Lane, Paul Sturgess in front of me, a good set of defensive minded players”
Hereford United 2000/2001 (c) Hereford Journal – MH Archive
In early October Hereford won 3-0 at Kingstonian. The game is remembered for a mass brawl early in the 1st half.
Back then there were no Play Offs , and whilst Hereford were in the top 5 position for most of the season. It was Rushden & Diamonds and Yeovil Town who were massively clear of everybody else battling for promotion, and with the crowds dwindling Hereford had to cost cut. Chris Lane and Michael McIndoe were sold to pay the bills, and the team drifted into mid table.
Even former Wolverhampton Wanders legend Steve Bull who was working as a coach at the club was turning out for Hereford United from the subs bench. Bull scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Nuneaton.
Hereford though did have a good run in the FA Trophy.
Cooksey was the hero against Morecambe in a 5th round replay on the 27th February 2001. His heroics in a penalty shootout meant Hereford progressed 3-1 on pens.
The Bulls then played Burton Albion live on Sky in the Quarter Finals. Cooksey saved another penalty from Christian Moore in a 1-0 win. “I played against a few colleagues from my Derby County days that afternoon, a penalty is a free shot at goal, and should be scored every time, but I knew where Moore would put it, great crowd, good buzz and we dominated the game”
Hereford suffered heartbreak in the Semi Finals against Forest Green. The 1st leg ended 2-2 at the Lawn.
It was back to Edgar Street for the 2nd tie a week later. Hereford lost 4-1 bowing 6-3 on aggregate. “To be quite frank Forest Green just came at us with everything, Tony Daley and Frankie Bennett knocked the stuffing out out of us, we just weren’t at the races, I remember crying after the game. I wanted to win the FA Trophy, I thought this was the moment, the lads were inconsolable in the changing room after the game.
In the summer of 2001 things took a turn for the worse, “Something wasn’t right near the end of the season when I was catching the ball, it was painful, I had an injection.
Cooksey added “Then a doctor suggested I had a routine operation to clear the damage, I got an infection in my wrist on the operating table, on hindsight I shouldn’t have had the operation, it destroyed the bone surface of the metacarpal bone in my wrist”
Hereford United V Burton Albion March 2001 (c) MH Archive
” I had extensive physio, it was still painful, I had to wear a cast, i got back training in early 2002, I had to see the specialist again, I was out of contract that summer, so I came to the decision to call it a day, it was a sorry end, I had a lot of support from everybody, but I miss it every single minute, I loved the place, my understudy Matt Baker came in and did really well” Cooksey was one of the first to congratulate Baker after his man of the match performance meant Hereford dumped League One Wrexham out of the FA Cup live on BBC One.
It was such a shame Cooksey had to retire, he was only 30, and as a goalkeeper still had his best years ahead of him “The circumstances didn’t allow me to fulfil my potential, the fans were always fantastic with me”
Cooksey then retired from professional football, but returned to Edgar Street during the 2002/2003 season on the media side reporting the match stats.
If things couldn’t get any worse he then suffered a brain tumour, and came close to death, but thankfully is in recovery, and is now a teacher in the West Midlands.
Scott Cooksey 2019
He has recently set up the Hereford Barbarians over 45’s football team which is based in the West Midlands “We’ve got a combination of old Hereford and Hednesford players Ian Wright, Matt Clarke, Leroy May, Rob Elmes and Mark Taylor turn out for us”
Hereford Barbarians December 2019
