NEW boy Jamie Devitt says the Accrington Stanley squad are determined to secure a result for Paul Cook tonight after the manager endured a nightmare start to his reign on Saturday.
Cook saw his new team lose 4-0 at home to Plymouth in his first game as boss at the weekend but the Reds are back in action at Crewe tonight for a fixture that was frozen off two-and-a-half weeks ago.
Devitt was arguably the only positive of a bad day on Saturday as the right winger came off the bench and produced an impressive performance less than 24 hours after signing on loan from Hull, forcing a brilliant save and then hitting the bar with a free kick.
The 21-year-old Irishman hopes he will now get the chance to start at Gresty Road and knows the squad owe Cook a performance.
“It wasn’t a great performance for his first game but I think we’ll just rally around each other and give him a good result at Crewe,” Devitt said.
“Obviously it didn’t look good on Saturday but it just needs a bit of time to get to know the players more.
“The manager came in and lifted everybody in the dressing room on Saturday and thank God we don’t have to wait too long for the next game.
“We want to go out and change the last result.”
Devitt scored a Crown Ground winner as Grimsby came from 2-0 down to secure a 3-2 victory two years ago but, just as on Saturday, there was no luck of the Irish for him that season.
The Republic of Ireland under 21 international ended the campaign with an unwanted record as the Mariners, parent club Hull and Darlington – where he also spent time on loan that term – all suffered relegation.
He wants to put that right by helping Stanley to promotion and takes inspiration from Hull reserve team boss Kevin Kilbane, the Ireland international whose build and style of play did not appear entirely dissimilar to the Reds’ new man.
“Kevin’s an idol to be honest, he’s played so many games for Ireland and has done wonders for Irish football,” said Devitt, who made 16 appearances for Hull last season but has not played a league game for the Tigers this term, going on loan to Bradford for a spell.
“He is probably one of my better friends in football, he’s one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet. He’s the reserve manager now, we have a chat and I’ll speak to him again.
“I’m here to play games, that’s what I want to do and hopefully I showed the manager that I want to play at Crewe.
“The first thing I said when I signed was I want to get the club promoted.
“Two seasons ago I had the three relegations but I want to put that behind me now and try to get Accrington promoted.”
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