Walsall boss Keates ‘over the moon’ for hat-trick hero Cook

Posted Sunday, January 20, 2019 by PA

An ecstatic Dean Keates claimed it was about time Andy Cook got a hat-trick after the Walsall striker put Gillingham to the sword in the Saddlers’ 3-0 win at Priestfield.

Cook took his tally to 15 goals since a summer move from Tranmere to end the Saddlers’ six-game winless run in Sky Bet League One and secure a first away victory since early October.

The result eases pressure on Keates and he is now backing the forward to fire them back up the table and away from the relegation dogfight after they moved five points clear.

“I’m over the moon for him. I just gave him some stick as he should have got a hat-trick at Bradford earlier this season,” he said.

“He scores goals – I knew that when I brought him into the football club.

“He works hard, he puts himself about, he gets in people’s faces and does a job for the team that not many people see. But when he gets his opportunities he gets goals.

“We were outstanding from start to finish, it was a full team effort. Cookie provided the headlines as he took his chances but as a team performance it was perfect.

“It’s been difficult over the past few weeks but our performances have not been horrendous; we’ve been close to doing something but we’ve not helped ourselves defensively.

“Every decision the players made defensively was spot on. (Tom) Eaves is one of the most high-profile strikers in the league and we limited him to just two chances, both of which he was offside for. Other than that we restricted them to 30-yard shots.”

By contrast, it was a crushing defeat for Gillingham and they are now just one point clear of an increasingly tight battle at the bottom.

And, with three defeats from four, manager Steve Lovell knows they need to stop shooting themselves in the foot defensively.

“I’m lost for words really. This is a terrible defeat for us because of the way we’ve given them three goals,” he said.

“We work all week on things, on how we want to start games and how we set out to play. We do it in training and it looks lovely, but then we come here and we just freeze.

“Our players looked scared stiff to start the game – that’s happened too many times this season and I don’t know where it comes from. Is it down to personnel? Is it the shape we’re playing? Is it what we’re doing in training during the week? I’ve asked those questions to myself as I really didn’t expect that today. I thought we’d come out all guns blazing.

“We knew Cook peels off at the far post and what does he do today? Scores two at the far post. We never dealt with him.”