When Mick Cooke agreed to take the Bray Wanderers job following the resignation of Trevor Croly, he became the fifth person to oversee first-team affairs at the Carlisle Grounds in 2015.
The instability in the manager's office was a reflection of the general uncertainty surrounding the club as a number of off-the-field problems – ranging from delays in player payments to an apparent boardroom battle for control of Bray Wanderers – continued to upset the efforts of those on the football side.
It was too much for the man who started the season in charge, Alan Mathews. He resigned, along with his entire backroom team, after five league games. It was also too much for Mathews' eventual replacement, Trevor Croly, via caretaker stints by Maciej Tarnogrodski and skipper David Cassidy.
Former Shamrock Rovers boss Croly departed after just 52 days in the hotseat. In Croly's short stint at the helm, he oversaw a turnaround in fortunes on the pitch, one which Cooke has managed to maintain – Friday's 1-0 defeat to Dundalk by the seaside was his first defeat in five outings as Seagulls boss.
With former St. Patrick's Athletic majority shareholder Gerry Mulvey having agreed to come on board as a new investor at Bray, Cooke believes the problems which have dogged the club this season are firmly confined to the past.
“Very confident,” was the reply the 63 year old gave to the media after the Dundalk game when asked if he was confident that Bray are finally over their behind the scenes difficulties, adding that the players had received their latest due payment last Monday with no problems.
“The new investor and the people that are here, Denis O'Connor, they're fully behind making Bray a formidable force in football and I can tell you, only [for] I was given the guarantees of what I wanted, I wouldn't be here myself," said Cooke.
“I sat down with Denis and Mr. Mulvey came in, he was an investor in St. Pat's before, so he knows what he's getting himself into and he's looking forward to next season once we survive this one.”
Continue reading Mick Cooke's thoughts on Bray's current well-being on Extratime.ie.
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