Cooper misses cup clash

9:14am Thursday 30th August 2001

ADAM Cooper will miss Chalfont St Peter's FA Cup preliminary round tie at Arlesley on Saturday as he starts a 21-day ban.

Cooper, who hit Saints' winner in their 1-0 victory over Kingsbury Town last Saturday, collected the suspension while he was playing for another club in a Sunday League clash.

As well as missing the crunch cup game he also looks set to miss five other matches during his ban.

His absence will be a big loss to the much-improved new-look Saints who travel to Arlesey hoping to abolish the memory of last season's 8-0 league defeat over there.

But Saints are a much tougher proposition these days.

Saturday's win over Kingsbury was their second in their first four Ryman League Division Three matches this season and they are already halfway towards the total number of wins they achieved last season, with 38 matches still to play.

But their hopes of an unbeaten Bank Holiday programme were wrecked by former player Gary Blake on Monday.

He came back to haunt Chalfont as he plundered two late goals for his new club Wokingham in their 4-2 win over Saints.

He struck in the 88th minute and during injury time after a James Ramsey penalty and an 89th minute goal from substitute Gavin Acres had kept Saints in the hunt.