Neale Cooper

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Neale Cooper
Personal information
Full name	Neale James Cooper
Date of birth	November 24, 1963 (1963-11-24) (age 44)
Place of birth	Darjeeling, India
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Peterhead (manager)
Youth clubs
1978–1979	King Street
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1979–1986 1986–1988 1988–1990 1990–1991 1991 1991–1996 1996–1998	Aberdeen Aston Villa Rangers Aberdeen Reading Dunfermline Athletic Ross County	132 (6) 020 (?) 017 (1) 000 (0) 007 (?) 103 (4) 001 (0)
Teams managed
1996–2002 2003–2005 2005 2008–	Ross County Hartlepool United Gillingham Peterhead
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Neale James Cooper (born November 24, 1963, in Darjeeling, India) is a Scottish football manager and former professional player. A big, muscular player once likened to "a Sherman tank with legs",^[1] his nickname was "Godzilla" because of his ferocious tackling ^[2]

He began his senior carrer with Aberdeen. A first-team regular from the beginning of the 1981–82 season, he starred in midfield for the Dons for five seasons in which he won two Premier Division Championships, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup under the management of Alex Ferguson. In the summer of 1986, he signed for Aston Villa but made only twenty league appearances in the next two years, partly because of injuries. In the 1988–89 season, he transferred to Rangers and quickly won the League Cup but injuries restricted him to only seventeen league appearances. In the summer of 1990, he re-joined Aberdeen but was never fit to play. Next season he signed for Reading but after only seven appearances moved to Dunfermline Athletic where he at last was able to play regulaly. After three seasons in the First Division, he moved into management with Ross County.

He guided the Staggies through two successful promotions campaigns before stepping down after a run of only one win in eleven games and joining Hartlepool United, who were newly promoted from the Third Division to the Second Division. Cooper took them to the play-offs in his first season where they lost to Bristol City in the semi-finals after two last-minute goals. In his second season, Cooper took Hartlepool within points to securing another play-off spot before resigning with one match remaining. Hartlepool then went on to make the final of the play-offs, where they lost to Sheffield Wednesday. For the 2005–06 season, he took over the reins at Gillingham who were in financial trouble and had lost the majority of their first team: but he resigned in November of that year after poor performances and an FA Cup defeat to Northern Premier League side Burscough.

In October 2006, Cooper returned to Scottish football with Second Division Peterhead, as he took on the role of first team coach under the management of Steve Paterson. When Paterson left Peterhead in early 2008, Cooper took over as manager.

Cooper has a 16-year-old son Alex, who is currently playing for the Liverpool youth academy, after a £100,000 move from Ross County in December 2007. Alex spent the summer of 2006 at a training camp in Switzerland with Chelsea, and Jose Mourinho had reportedly tracked his development.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Neale Cooper career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Ross County F.C. – Managers Wilson (1987–96) • Cooper (1996–02) • Smith (2002–05) • Robertson (2005) • Speirs (2005–06) • Leitch (2006–07) • Campbell (2007) • Adams (2007–-) •

v • d • e Hartlepool United F.C. – Managers Priest (1908–12) • Humphreys (1912–13) • Manners (1913–20) • Potter (1920–22) • Gordon (1922–24) • Manners (1924–27) • Norman (1927–31) • Carr (1932–35) • Hamilton (1935–40) • Westgarth (1943–57) • Middleton (1957–59) • Robinson (1959–62) • Chilton (1962–63) • Gurney (1963–64) • Williams (1964–65) • Twentyman (1965) • Clough (1965–67) • McLean (1967–70) • Simpson (1970–71) • Ashurst (1971–74) • Hale (1974–76) • Horner (1976–83) • Duncan (1983) • Docherty (1983) • Horner (1983–86) • Bird (1986–88) • Moncur (1988–89) • Knowles (1989–91) • Murray (1991–93) • Busby (1993) • MacPhail (1993–94) • McCreery (1994–95) • Houchen (1995–96) • Tait (1996–99) • Baker & Honour (1999) • Turner (1999–2002) • Newell (2002–03) • Cooper (2003–05) • Scott (2005–06) • Stephenson (2006) • Wilson (2006–)

v • d • e Gillingham F.C. – Managers Groombridge (1896–1906) • Smith (1906–08) • Groombridge (1908–19) • Collins (1919–20) • McMillan (1920–23) • Curtis (1923–26) • Hoskins (1926–29) • Hendrie (1929–31) • Maven (1932–37) • Ure (1937–38) • Harvey (1938–39) • Clark (1939–58) • Barratt (1958–62) • Cox (1962–65) • Hayward (1965–71) • Nelson (1971–74) • Ashurst (1974–75) • Summers (1975–81) • Peacock (1981–87) • Paul Taylor (1987–88) • Burkinshaw (1988–89) • Richardson (1989–92) • Roeder (1992–93) • Flanagan (1993–95) • Smillie (1995) • Pulis (1995–99) • Peter Taylor (1999–2000) • Hessenthaler (2000–04) • Gorman (2004) • Ternent (2004–05) • Cooper (2005) • Jepson (2005–07) • Docherty (2007) • Onuora (2007) • Stimson (2007–)

v • d • e Peterhead F.C. – Managers Grant (1976–80) • D'Arcy (1980–81) • Harper (1981–82) • Smith (1982–83) • Hamilton (1983–90) • Adams (1990–91) • Guyan (1991–93) • Wilson (1993–94) • Watson (1994–95) • Wilson (1995–98) • Brown (1998–2000) • Wilson (2000–04) • Stewart (2004–06) • Paterson (2006–08) • Cooper (2008–)