"BURNLEY?" It's usually the first word that Paul Cook utters as he walks out of the Accrington Stanley changing room on a Saturday afternoon.

It might only be a one-word question, but you know instantly what he means.

After Liverpool the team he has grown up supporting, and Stanley the team he will end his playing career with, the Clarets are his third love and he is desperate to know how they've fared on a matchday.

Even to the untrained eye, the profound affect life at Turf Moor had on him is obvious when you take into account the number of clubs he has played for in his long career.

For someone who has had nine transfers since starting out at Marine back in 1983, Cook must have found Burnley a special place for him to hold it so dearly to his heart.

He has worked for highly regarded managers including Ron Atkinson, Graham Taylor and Gordon Strachan. But he highlights former boss Stan Ternent as the most influential, and one of the main reasons why Turf Moor and Gawthorpe were such enjoyable work places from March 1999, when he first arrived on loan before signing that summer, to May 2003.

But when the Clarets' door closed, the Stanley one opened. And as the veteran midfielder now prepares to hang up his boots and put his coaching hat on full-time, Cook could think of no better way to mark his impending retirement at the end of this season than for the two sides to meet.

So the well-travelled 38-year-old has put the wheels in motion for a Stanley v Burnley XI game at the Interlink Express Stadium on May 2.

"It's just a chance to thank all the people of Accrington and Burnley," he said.

"In the Burnley XI team I'm hoping there'll be a few players from the time we got promoted from the old Second Division.

"Stan will be in charge with Sam Ellis as his assistant and I'm inviting all the ex-players.

"It will be a fitting occasion fingers crossed if Accrington win the league to have my kids there and my missus and have a drink after with a lot of friends.

"And it's a chance for Accrington and Burnley fans to mark the end of the season."

He added: "I had a very happy time at Burnley and really enjoyed working for Stan. He knew how to treat his players and if you are going to move into management then you would like to think you would be a bit like him in terms of his man management," said Cook.

"He knew when to bully you and when to be nice to you.

"And he pretty much threw together a rag and bone team, because he had to.

"I think when a lot of players look back on their time at Burnley they will be grateful to Stan for prolonging their careers a bit.

"Ronnie Jepson would say he helped to prolong mine by coming on as a sub for me!"

Retirement isn't something that Cook is welcoming with open arms.

But, just as he was in a rebellious phase as a younger professional, it's something that he is in control of.

"I will look back on my career with no regrets," he said. "I would change some things, but I don't regret it. It's my life and I've lived it.

"But I wish I had been a lot more professional at times.

"When you've played a long time, you just come to an age where you don't want to go on and on and drag it out," added Cook, who admits some of his own team-mates have helped him to come to the conclusion that it's time to bring the curtain down on his playing days.

"I love playing," he said.

"But I want to bring an end to my career while I'm still fit.

"Plus you see the likes of Ian Craney and Gary Roberts and I could only live with those types of players for five minutes now.

"It's difficult at times. If you watch the lads and you think they are struggling your mind automatically tells you that you could be out there doing a job.

"If there was ever an occasion where the club needed me to sit on the bench or play in the reserves to try to help the players then I would be more than happy to do that.

"But, generally, I'd rather draw a line under it now."

You can almost hear the splash as his heart sinks at the prospect. But at the same time there is a distinct skip in his tone of voice that makes you aware he is also excited about the next step in his career.

And as he makes those strides as a coach under Stanley manager John Coleman and his assistant Jimmy Bell, helping the Conference table topping Reds achieve their dream of returning to the Football League would be the icing on the cake.

"Seeing the club go from where we were when I got here to where we are today is fantastic," he said.

"Before I signed, I met John, Jimmy and Eric (Whalley) together and the general consensus was that if we could stay in the Conference we would be quite happy, and that was only two years ago.

"We had a tremendous FA Cup run in that first year, then last year was a transitional period with players coming in and players moving on.

"John asked me to be player coach last season. I think he has forgotten about the playing side of it now," added Cook, followed by his cheeky, gritty cackle.

"But this season, with the acquisitions we've made, we thought we might have a good chance of getting into the Football League.

"It's lovely to see the lads winning and the camaraderie.

"It's great to be involved in a sort of success. We've won nothing at this moment in time, and no-one's more aware of that than me and the management team. But we've put ourselves in a really good position to do something this year.

"I've had a few highlights in my career. Playing at Anfield for Coventry and winning 3-2; winning promotion with Burnley; captaining them in the FA Cup quarter final at Watford.

"I still maintain that we didn't do ourselves justice that day. We froze.

"But to captain the team, when it was on television as well, was fantastic."

But Cook hopes there is still room for one more thing on his personal role of honour. The Conference title.