WEYMOUTH defender Mark Cooper felt the Terras’ 2-0 FA Cup second qualifying round win over former club Chippenham Town was simply “all about the result”.
Cooper, playing in a right wing-back role, scored Weymouth’s second goal against the Bluebirds, who he left earlier this season, and was keen to put “personal things aside”.
He told Echosport: “It was all about the result really, putting personal things aside. I don’t score too many but it’s nice to get one against one of your old clubs, regardless of any situation.
“The result was the main thing and I thought going down to 10 men we stuck at our task, we had players playing all over the place out of position. Credit to everyone involved, even the subs came on and did their job well as well.”
Having gone down to 10 men after Calvin Brooks received a second yellow, Cooper described the Terras’ second-half performance as “excellent”.
He said: “They’re a league above, they won the league last year for a reason. They’ve got some quality players. When we went down to 10 men they did the right thing and chucked a lot of players up.
“Credit to our boys, everything they chucked at us we defended. (Mark) Travers made two or three great saves and we were chucking blocks in.
“To a man I thought we were excellent in the second half, especially to keep a clean sheet against opposition of a higher standard.”
Talking through his goal, Cooper admitted he didn’t strike his effort as cleanly as he would have liked.
“I don’t remember too much of it. The gaffer said to me at half-time to try and get forward a bit more.
“Goody played the ball through and I managed to nip in front of the left-back and it sat up and I didn’t hit it that clean. It was one of them where if I probably did hit it clean it would have went at the keeper.
“I managed to sneak it in off the post. It was a nice feeling, definitely,” he said.
Cooper also echoed manager Mark Molesley’s thoughts that a home tie would be the Terras’ preference in the third qualifying round.
He said: “It’s the FA Cup and it’s a one-off game regardless of what standard we’re against. On our day we know we can compete with anyone so obviously a home game would be ideal.
“The support was fantastic and if we can get another home game, get the fans in and give them something to cheer about, a bit of money for the club as well, it’s all good.”