This week Josh Barton of theterras.com caught up with Terras’ fullback and the weekend’s goal hero Mark Cooper to discuss his time with Weymouth FC and his teammate’s haircuts.
Josh Barton: You’ve been at Weymouth for a while now and have proven yourself as a determined and skilled fullback. Do you feel that yourself and the club should be playing at a higher level of football?
Mark Cooper: I’ve played this level for 4/5 years now since being released from pro clubs so I feel I’d like to have a crack at the leauge above yeah, there’s no doubt Weymouth is a huge non-league club and should at least be playing in the division above.
JB: You seem to have been flying down the wings more of late. You scored on Saturday, even as a defender, does it increase your confidence on the pitch?
MC: Haha! I try and set myself targets of trying to score at least 5 goals a season, I’m falling short so far, but it’s always nice to get on the scoresheet yeah, but defending is my bread and butter.
JB: Do you have any pre-match rituals, like a song you’ll always listen to, food you will always eat etc?
MC: My commute to games is a good hour and a half or so. My car school of Tommo (Ben Thomson) and Azza (Aaron Rodriguez) always have a good mixture of music playing. When it comes to food I always try and have a decent breakfast and drink plenty of water.
JB: What is the best moment of your career so far?
MC: Best moment of my career obviously would be singing my first professional contract when I was 17 and having some good experience in being involved in numerous League One games and traveling to some nice stadiums.
JB: Lovely stuff. Who would you say is the most intelligent player in the Weymouth squad?
MC: I’m genuinely struggling with the most intelligent, I’d say Mose (Mark Molesley) Sheps (Chris Shephard) or Dean Evans, although Chez Davies (Charlie Davis) and Kev Brooks (Calvin Brooks) seem to think they know a lot haha!
JB: Was it difficult to leave Frome? You were popular with the fans there.
MC: It was always going to be tough leaving Frome as they gave me the opportunity to play first team footy after leaving Newport. I also built up a good relationship with the people there, but the time was right to move on.
JB: Can you sum up your time at Weymouth so far? Do you see yourself here for a long period?
MC: I’ve enjoyed the last 2 seasons, hopefully there is more to come ??
JB: Which Weymouth player needs their barnet sorted the most?
MC: To be fair we have a few good wigs at our club, but I’d say Coppy’s wig is the worst, he looks like a human furby haha!!
JB: Least intelligent?
MC: Least intelligent is a toss up between Wannell, Coppy or Tommo, can even chuck Rodgers in the mix aswell haha!
JB: Try to keep as clean as possible, the best or funniest chant you’ve heard from a crowd?
MC: Probably when I was playing for Frome when we played Weymouth a few years back, I actually had a perm and I remember taking a throw in and some of the Weymouth lot were calling me a curly haired worst word in the English language, obviously, I laughed it all off ??.
