Andrew Roy Cooke (born 20 January 1974) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for Newtown,

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

, Busan I'Cons (South Korea),

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

and Shrewsbury Town.

Career

Born in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, Cooke was once a trainee at local side Telford United. He started his footballing career at Welsh semi-professional club Newtown. He was a prolific goalscorer in the Welsh Premier League which attracted the attention of several

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs.

signed Cooke in 1995, and he made 172 league appearances and scored 51 goals for them, forging a partnership with

Andy Payton Andrew Paul Payton (born 23 October 1967) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, Payton played for seven professional clubs in England and Scotland, scoring 200 goals in over 500 appearances, and gaining the nickname the ''Pad ...

. In December 2000 he joined the club he grew up supporting,

, for a fee of £300,000. He spent two and a half years at the Britannia Stadium, making 102 appearances and scoring 23 goals. On 19 July 2003, he moved to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n K-League club Busan I'Cons, along with fellow countryman

Jamie Cureton Jamie Cureton (born 28 August 1975) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he is currently player-manager at Enfield. He began his career at Norwich City in 1994, and after the club's relegation from the Premier League at the ...

. On his return to England in January 2005, Cooke signed for

, playing 37 games and scoring five goals. He had a three-month spell on loan at

before signing for Shrewsbury Town for free on 27 July 2006. Cooke made his Shrewsbury debut on 26 August 2006 as a half-time substitute for Kelvin Langmead in a 1–0 defeat at Bristol Rovers. He started the next match, a 1–0 defeat to Lincoln City, and in his third match scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 3–0 win against Stockport County. On 1 January 2007, Cooke scored his 100th professional goal during a 4–2 win over Stockport County. He also scored a hat-trick in that game, giving him the distinction of having achieved this feat both home and away against Stockport County in the 2006–07 season. Having failed to score for three months, Cooke came on as a substitute in the

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

playoff semi-final second leg to score both goals in a 2–1 aggregate victory over

MK Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. At the end of the season, Cooke was offered a new one-year contract, but warned by manager Gary Peters that he would not be guaranteed a regular place in the first-team squad. Cooke decided to stay with Shrewsbury Town, and Peters went on to say that it would not surprise him if he ended the season as the team's top goalscorer. Cooke scored twice in Shrewsbury Town's 2007–08 opening-day victory at Lincoln City, but sustained a hamstring injury in a League Cup fixture against Colchester United three days later. He resumed full training in early December, and his comeback was complete when he returned to first-team action on 26 December 2007. Although he only played the first half against Stockport County, Cooke marked his return with a goal, his seventh in his last three games against that opposition. On 31 January 2008, Cooke was set to sign a one-and-a-half-year contract with Notts County, but the deal fell through because of a "late hitch". On 15 April 2008, Cooke was released by Shrewsbury Town by mutual consent, after being informed his contract would not be renewed. He trained with

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

, but wanted to continue playing in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

; however, when no club came in for him, he announced his retirement as a player on 28 August 2008. He came out of retirement in November 2011 to sign for his local club Market Drayton Town as a Director of Football and also as a player.

Personal life

Cooke grew up supporting

. After retiring from playing Cooke began working in the Group Insurance industry.

Career statistics

Source:

References

External links

*
Photos and stats
at sporting-heroes.net * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Andy 1974 births Living people Footballers from Shrewsbury Men's association football forwards English men's footballers Burnley F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Busan IPark players Bradford City A.F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Cymru Premier players English Football League players K League 1 players English expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea English expatriate men's footballers Northern Premier League players Market Drayton Town F.C. players Newtown A.F.C. players