'I love 99% of Chesterfield fans', says Paul Cook after players receive 'abuse'
Paul Cook says he ‘loves’ 99% of Chesterfield fans and that he wants to move on from his post-match comments after the draw against Harrogate Town.
The Spireites boss was frustrated with the reaction of some fans who apparently ‘abused’ some of the players and staff after Saturday’s 1-1 draw. There were boos at the full-time whistle but most of them are thought to have been directed at referee Aaron Farmer, who sent off Lee Bonis when the Blues led 1-0. However, in his post-match interviews, Cook said that some players received abuse and that he ‘won’t be the manager’ if that happened again.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday night’s home match against Gillingham, Cook said he wanted to ‘tidy up’ his comments and move forward ‘quickly.’
He explained: "On coming in from the pitchside on Saturday, players/staff were a little bit disappointed with some of the criticism/abuse that was coming from small sections of the crowd.
"To 99% of Chesterfield supporters I love them. They know that. How many times I speak about how proud I am of our supporters. Our stadium has gone from five or six thousand to eight or nine thousand.
"We will always get supporters now who are unhappy, it is the world we live in today. I would always ask our supporters not to turn on our own players. These lads, in general, have not done a lot wrong.
"So my message to that small minority is you be what you want to be. To 99% of the Chesterfield supporters I love you as much as you love me. So I think we can all move on from that quite quickly.”
Reflecting back on the Harrogate draw, Cook was disappointed they gave up a winning position once again. “It is really going to harm us come the end of the season without a shadow of a doubt because it has happened that many times,” he added.