CALLUM Cooke believes that Mark Trueman will rekindle the enjoyment in City’s football again.

Cooke was one of the main performers under Trueman and Conor Sellars during the second half of last season.

The midfielder has welcomed Trueman’s return to the hot-seat on a caretaker basis in the wake of Derek Adams’ sacking.

And he hopes that the former assistant manager can have the same effect in reviving spirits as before.

Cooke said: “Mark made it enjoyable last year and that was the big thing.

“We were coming in enjoying training and winning games of football.

“Winning makes you happy, it breeds confidence and I had a good end to the season.

“I had an injury which stopped me in my tracks that was unfortunate. But Mark used me a lot and I’m hoping that will happen again.

“If I’m given the nod, I’ll be raring to go because I know what he expects from me and will let me enjoy my football.”

Cooke admitted some of the squad have “lost their way of late” after Adams paid the price following a third loss in five games. City were booed off again in the Scot’s final match in charge against Exeter and individual reputations have suffered.

“You feel everybody’s frustration,” he added. “Your family know how good you can be, you put a lot of pressure on yourself and start overthinking things when they don’t go your way.

“You get the pressure and the frustration from the fans and accept that because they pay their hard-earned money to come and watch you play football.

“We can’t say a bad word about them and rightly so because the fans here are incredible.

“But I’m excited. It’s a new challenge for all of us and Mark knows what we are capable of from last year.

“I just think we needed a bit more confidence and a bit more of a gameplan being drilled in at training.

“As a footballer, you want information on opposition, how they play and set up and where you can hurt them.

“You do all the analysis and stuff and obviously games don’t always go that way. But it’s nice to do that so you are comfortable and everybody’s on the same page.

“With Mark I feel we’re going to be well drilled and everybody is going to be reading from the same script.”

Adams joined City in the same week that he had taken Morecambe to League One and the promotion challenge was thrown down straight away – high expectations that the team have struggled to match.

But Cooke insists that pressure has always been there in his three years at Valley Parade.

“When I walked through the door the first year I was here on loan with Gary Bowyer, I felt that ambition and the target to get out of this league from day one,” he said.

“That’s no different this year. With Derek coming in after getting promotions elsewhere, there was maybe a bit more expectation.

“But from our point of view, that’s always been the aim and nothing’s changed.

“We need to start doing ourselves justice now and we have to do our talking on the pitch.

“The target is still promotion. It’s only eight points and that’s not a million miles away.

“There are still a lot of games to play and a lot can happen.”