Player of the Year Cooper always had faith Argyle would get over the line

MIKE Cooper has admitted it feels like a lifetime since he last played for Plymouth Argyle after suffering a serious knee injury in early February.

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

Despite missing the last three months of the Pilgrims' incredible title-winning campaign the highlyrated goalkeeper won the club's Player of the Season award for the second successive year.

The last time that was done was by former midfielder turned manager Carl Fletcher in 2009/10 and 2010/11 as Argyle experienced back-to-back relegations amid a huge financial crisis.

Cooper had been an ever present in League One this term, extending an unbroken sequence of starts to 121 games since the start of the 2020/21 season, before he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in one of his knees.

Such was his value to Argyle and their promotion push, though, that the Green Army voted for him to be Argyle's player of the season, and he received the trophy at the club's awards night at Home Park on Tuesday.

Cooper said: "I don't know where to start. I try and think back to my time playing and it's really hard to remember what it was like, to be honest.

"I know it has only been three months but it has felt like a lifetime. I felt like I really kicked on from last season again, really hit some form.