Town midfielder Cooper is happy to be playing his part
THIS TIME last season, Charlie Cooper was in the midst of a three-month period without a game between loan spells at Newport County and Boreham Wood.
But now, the Town midfielder is a regular in the engine room of Pete Wild’s side as they push for a National League playoff place.
The 22-year-old has already made more appearances this season than the whole of the previous campaign, despite only making his Halifax debut a month into the season.
“Since I came in I’ve really enjoyed it,” said the midfielder, who scored his first Halifax with a screamer in the 5-2 home win against Maidenhead United on January 18.
“My main aim was to be getting back playing week-in, week-out, and that’s worked out for me.
“I’ve got the games I’ve wanted and the team’s doing really well at the minute.
“But we can’t get complacent, we just need to keep doing what we’re doing.
“With this group of lads, you won’t get that.
“We won’t be thinking we’ve done it and stuff like that. We’ll just keep playing and give 100 per cent in every game.
“Hopefully we just stay in and around it.”
Cooper started his career at Birmingham City before playing for York and Forest Green Rovers, where he was under the management of his father Mark.
He joined Halifax on a shortterm deal in September and signed a contract extension at the start of January, keeping him at The Shay until the end of the season.
“There was a bit of talk about elsewhere but I really wanted to stay,” he said.
“I hadn’t enjoyed my football for the last couple of seasons really, and I just wanted to get back enjoying it and playing regularly.
“I managed to get myself straight in the team here and I’ve been playing since. As long as I keep working hard hopefully I stay in the team and keep helping them.
“As soon as I came in, it was really welcoming, a great bunch of lads, the dressing room’s class, and all the staff have helped me.
“They’ve just let me get on with it and play my game.
“They’ve not tried to be too restrictive on how I play.
“When I first came in I felt really confident. I hadn’t played for quite a bit, the start of the season killed me a little bit.
“But I thought I hit the ground running.
“Then we had that blip and a few results didn’t go our way.
“We were still playing some good stuff but the results weren’t going for us.
“But I feel really confident in there now and I feel like I’m helping the team.”
Cooper feels the team spirit in Wild’s squad is the driving force behind their lofty league position - with The Shaymen currently sitting fourth in the National League after their 4-2 midweek win against Dover and believes they can maintain their promotion challenge for the rest of the campaign.
“If you’ve got a good dressing room then you’re going to do well, as well as having good players,” said Cooper, who has made 24 appearances for Town so far this season.
“At the minute, everything’s clicking. That’s why we’re hitting a good run of form but we can’t be dropping off.
“We need to keep it going right until the end of the season. And there’s no reason why we can’t.
“Every team’s going to have little blips but it’s how you bounce back, and since the Stockport game (when Town were thrashed 5-1 on Boxing Day), we’ve looked a lot more solid and resilient.
“It feels a lot better out there.” Cooper has formed an effective partnership in central midfield with Josh Staunton, and is pleased with how it is going.
“We cover a decent amount of ground, we handle the ball quite well and it has clicked,” he said. “I enjoy playing in there with him.”
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