THAT "good left peg" was used for the final time as Paul Cook said farewell to competitive football.

More than 1000 people turned up to watch two of his former clubs, Burnley and Conference champions Accrington Stanley, battle it out to give Cook a good send off on Tuesday night.

The final score was 4-4 with some quality goals - one from that left peg of Cook - as the night belonged to the midfielder who will now concentrate on coaching.

"I can't thank people highly enough," said the 39-year-old, who has more than 700 games under his belt and nine clubs. "All the people who have turned up to play, who have helped behind the scenes and the fans, I just want to thank them all. It has been a great night.

"And there was some really good goals - especially scored by Burnley. Tony Grant and Tony Ellis' goals were fantastic."

And the Reds coach did have a little laugh that he was in the opposition dressing room when John Coleman let rip to his Conference winners who were 3-0 down at half-time.

"I heard the reaction from Coley in the dressing room and I could tell he wasn't best pleased!"

Current Burnley player Graham Branch started along with Crewe players Gareth Taylor and Tony Grant and ex-Clarets Andy Cooke, Micky Mellon, Lennie Johnrose, Steve Davis, Dean West and Paul Weller.

Stanley had the majority of their championship winning side - but there were a few returning faces. Former Stanley defender Jonathan Smith was there with Paul Howarth, Ged Brannan and FA Cup hero Andy Gouck.

Gary Roberts tested a few skills on Davis early on while Andy Mangan had chance after chance but couldn't bury the ball.

Burnley opened the scoring when Paul Cook found Andy Cooke who headed the ball down and set up Grant to finish well.

Coleman and Jimmy Bell then came on but couldn't make an impression and the Clarets surged on. Taylor tucked home an Andy Cooke cross on 41 minutes and Paul Cook finished sweetly with a volley from the edge of the area which went in off the post just before half-time.

"It was an okay goal, fitting I guess," said Cook, who played for Stanley for most of the second half. "It was past Rob Elliot too. I will be giving him some stick in the bar after!"

But that Coleman half-time rollocking seemed to do the trick for the home side with four goals in six minutes.

Mangan scored immediately after the break and David Brown added the second after tricking his way past Davis. Phil Edwards finally got his first Stanley goal - heading a Roberts' corner in at the far post - before Mangan pounced on a defensive error and made it four.

Tony Ellis scored a goal to remember as he turned and fired the ball from the edge of the area and it nestled into the top corner to make it fitting it finished all square.

Former Clarets boss Stan Ternent, managing the Burnley side, said: "It was fantastic. It turned the clock back a bit. Cookey has had a fantastic career he has been a good player and a lot of lads have travelled from distance and it shows the esteem they hold him in."

A proportion of the money from the game was donated to Pendleside Hospice.

  • THE only down side was an early tackle by Andy Cooke on Stanley's Rommy Boco which saw the midfielder carried off with an injured ankle.