Where Are They Now – Jeff Cook

Striker Jeff Cook is under the spotlight in this edition of the Where Are They Now series.

JEFF COOK – Born 14th March 1953 Hartlepool, England.

Although he was born in the North East of England Jeff started his football career playing for South African side Hellenic in 1975.
He was a prolific striker with the Greek influenced side scoring 46 goals in 64 appearances.
Jeff’s coach at Hellenic was former England player George Eastham, George left to become the manager at Stoke in March 1977 and in November persuaded Jeff to return to England to join him at the club. He made a good start scoring in his second game against Blackpool, unfortunately it ended in a 2-1 home defeat.
With Stoke not having a good season as usual the manager paid the penalty and in January 1978 George Eastham was replaced by Alan Durban.

In his first season Jeff made ten appearances and scored two more goals in the FA Cup third round in a 4-0 win at home to Tilbury to add to his one in the league.
The following season was a better one for Stoke, they were promoted to the First Division (Premiership), but not so good for Jeff, he only made three appearances and was loaned out to Fourth Division team Bradford City where he scored one goal from eight appearances. He returned to Stoke for the 1979-80 season.
After making only rare appearances he was loaned out again with Argyle manager Bobby Saxton happy to bring him to Home Park.

Jeff made his Argyle debut on 21st December in a 0-0 draw at Mansfield when he came on as a substitute. He also made appearances from the bench in the next two games before making his first start on 5th January in a 5-1 win at home to Hull, thanks to goals from Jeff (2), John Sims (2) and Chris Harrison.
In the next game he got the goal in a 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday and followed that one up the following Saturday when he scored in a 1-1 draw at home to Grimsby.
Jeff wasted no time getting his next goal when he scored the second goal in the next game, a 2-2 draw at home to Gillingham after Brian Bason had opened the scoring. With his month loan over Argyle were keen to keep Jeff on but with five goals in his last four games Stoke were equally keen to have him back.

His time at Home Park had obviously boosted Jeff’s confidence as he soon forced his way into the Stoke first team and quickly scored four goals, his goals came in three successive games. He got his first league goal in a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough on 23rd February after only four minutes, with Garth Crooks getting the other two.
In the next game at home to Arsenal Jeff got the first goal with Lee Chapman scoring the second but it wasn’t enough to stop the Gunners winning 3-2.
The following Saturday he only took twelve minutes to put Stoke in the lead before adding a second twelve minutes later in a 2-2 draw at Derby. Unfortunately he couldn’t maintain his scoring record and again drifted out of the first team.

The following season he only made four league and one FA Cup appearances. At the start of the 1981/82 season after making only one appearance and with the opportunity of first team football looking remote after making 34 appearances and scoring seven goals for Stoke he began to look for another club.

The now Argyle manager Bobby Moncur had obviously heard of Jeff’s goalscoring in his loan spell at the club and offered him the chance to join the club permanently.
He made his second debut on 17th October in a 3-1 defeat at Carlisle, with Jeff scoring the Argyle goal. In the next home game he scored two goals in a 5-1 win over Chester with Colin Randell also scoring twice and John Sims adding the fifth.
Jeff and John teamed up again two weeks later in a 3-1 win at home to Fulham with Jeff scoring two of the goals and John the other. It didn’t take him long before he scored again when he got the last goal in a comfortable 4-2 win at home to Doncaster after John Sims (2) and Kevin Hodges had both scored.

The first game of the New Year on 2nd January saw another big home win, this time 4-0 over Bristol Rovers with Jeff adding another two to his tally with Leigh Cooper also scoring twice. The other Bristol team, City, this time were the next team Jeff scored against, again at Home Park, he seemed to prefer scoring there, in a 2-1 with Kevin Hodges getting the winner.
John Sims and Jeff both scored in a 2-2 draw at Chesterfield in February, and after beating Fulham 3-1 at Home Park earlier in the season they repeated the score at Craven Cottage with John Sims, Leigh Cooper and Jeff all scoring.
The next game was another good home win, this time 4-1 over Walsall, after Jeff had scored twice, goals from Gordon Nisbet and Andy Rogers sent the fans home happy.
Argyle played the last three games in April away from home with Jeff scoring in two of them. He scored in a 2-1 defeat at Millwall and four day later scored the second goal in a 2-2 draw at Doncaster after John Sims had got the first, it was John’s 19th of the season and Jeff’s 16th. With Argyle finishing in eighth.

1982-83 saw Jeff carry on where he had left off from the previous season scoring twice in September, the first in a 3-2 defeat at Reading with John Uzzell also scoring and three day later he again scored the first goal, this time in a 2-2 draw at Newport with Kevin Hodges getting the second Argyle goal.
Jeff then had a bit of a barren spell for the next six weeks before he scored the first goal in a 2-0 win at home to Brentford with John Sims getting the second.
In early December Jeff again scored the first goal in a 2-1 win at home to Huddersfield with Kevin Hodges adding the second. Jeff scored his fifth of the season on 22nd January in a 4-2 defeat at home to Newport after one of their defenders had scored the first.
It turned out to be Jeff’s last goal for the club and he only made one more appearance that season.
With first team opportunities becoming limited at the end of the season after making another 64 appearances to add to the seven from his loan spell and scoring another 21 goals he accepted the offer of a two year contract with Fourth Division team Halifax.

In the two seasons Jeff spent at Halifax he made 34 appearances scoring six goals in his first season and in the second scored four goals in the 31 games he played.
After Halifax Jeff moved to Worksop Town before winding up his playing career with North Ferrriby United and finally Ferryhill Athletic.

plymouthvital@aol.co.uk