Cook was disappointed with the referee’s decisions, but was especially angry with the lack of welfare and care of his players. “The ref was poor again today but if you say anything then you get rolled over the coals and fined a lot of money so I am not going to give them the pleasure to do that.
“Daws (Kevin Dawson) has nearly got a broken leg today so he’s another one injured, Hanksy (Joe Hanks) out injured. He’s not even allowing Hanksy on the pitch from strapping up his ring!”
“Very poor from the officials today. He is one of the best players but he is struggling. When a challenge was an accidental one, but when you nearly break someone’s legs or ankles you should be sent off, that’s the rules of association football. He’s not protected the players in any way shape or form especially for us and I just thought he was poor, very very poor.”
SMALLEYYYYYYYY!!!! pic.twitter.com/R6JspowLyD
— Gloucester City AFC (@GCAFCofficial) November 9, 2024
After failing to get three points away at Sholing, Gloucester City manager Mike Cook was also “a bit disappointed” with the result, believing his side did enough to win, “we had those three chances in the second half, we didn’t have a lot of chances today but I thought we did it enough.”
“It would have been 2-1, a close game but still a positive of keeping the run going of nine,10 games. It is disappointing not to get the three points but we battled well.”
The return of Harry Burns and Dan Ball back in the starting lineup were positives for Cook with a few players out with injury at the moment. “Burnsy played well today, in a couple of roles in the 10 and as a sitter, worked really hard, was everything that we want him to be for us, he runs his heart out for the club.
🐯 Our XI in Sholing this afternoon #GCAFC #TigerCity pic.twitter.com/dHS370HdcY
— Gloucester City AFC (@GCAFCofficial) November 9, 2024
“I was also pleased with Bally too. He was excellent at left back, obviously got a couple of people out, so they are filling in. Got to get over this little period and just turn those draws into wins and we will be okay. This is gonna happen, we have 26 games or so games left and we need to pick up those points.”
The everlasting search for a striker is still ongoing, with Cook airing his frustrations on a couple of potential moves that haven’t materialised. “We have been working on it for two weeks to try and get somebody in. We’ve had a couple of knockbacks, and a couple that were just asking ridiculous money.
“We’ve still got Jadyn (Jadyn Crosbie) now up till Christmas, he’s just coming back from his hamstring so we have to be careful of him on minutes and time but he did alright when he come on, at the moment we just are not finishing off those attacks that we need so we will still be looking.”
Gloucester City sit second in the Southern Premier Division South, two points behind league leaders Merthyr Town who have played a game less.
