Cooke retires after 16-year career

Former Shrewsbury Town forward Andy Cooke has called time on his football career after 16 years.

The 34-year-old, who agreed his release from Shrewsbury last April, reached the decision after failing to find a Football League club over the summer.

That brought to an end a career which has seen Cooke score more than 150 goals during spells with Burnley, Stoke, Bradford, Shrewsbury and South Korean club Puscan I’cons.

“I’ve just decided to call it a day,” said Market Drayton-based Cooke.

“I did think about it and I trained with Kidderminster for a while and spoke to a couple of other clubs - but I wanted to stay in the League.

“I thought someone could have taken a bit of a chance on me and asked me to come and train with them.

“But people looked at it and saw I was nearly 35 and I think they are going for a younger player policy.

“I’m still keeping fit and you never know if I got a phone call. But I’ve put it to the back of my mind at the moment and I’ve got my life back.

“I’m looking after the kids and I’ve still got the (property) business which I started a couple of years ago.

“I do miss it the football a bit, especially when it is on television.

“But I think I missed it more last year when I was still around the squad at Shrewsbury every day.”

Cooke - whose last game in blue-and-amber came in the 1-0 home defeat to Bury at March - will look back on his football career fondly.

But he admits one of his great regrets is defeat in the League Two play-off final to Bristol Rovers at Wembley in 2006-7 - after firing the brace which famously won the semi-final at MK Dons.

“I’ve had a good innings and played for some big clubs and with some big players,” he added.

“It’s nice to look back and say you have partnered Ian Wright in attack at Burnley and I was pleased to do well at Stoke because some of my best mates supported them.

“I enjoyed my time at Shrewsbury and the big disappointment was not getting anything out of the game at Wembley.”