On Thursday at 10.10am I was given the devastating but inevitable news that Ernie had sadly passed away the night before. He had fought his own personal battle against malignant melanoma but his short life came to an end peacefully.

I first saw Ernie play in a friendly against Oldham Athletic and couldn't quite understand why the Latic's fans roared "ERNIE, ERNIE" every time he touched the ball. Eventually he signed for Dale and immediately I knew where they were coming from-fans always associate with players who give 100% commitment to the cause. He never let his head drop when things weren't working out on the pitch was always willing to push team mates forward and battled for ninety minutes every game.

When I think of him, I always have a little chuckle about an incident when Steve Parkin was our Manager and I asked for a player to do a presentation. Apparently Ernie had been late for training earlier in the week and Steve decided he was going to pay for his indiscretion-the manager arranged for all the players to assemble before training and was going to do a draw. What he hadn't told them was all the pieces of paper had ERNIE COOKSEY written on them so that when Tony Ford pulled out the "winner" it was always going to be Ernie.

Typically, he turned out and represented himself and the Club admirably.

We at the FITC entered the Greater Manchester Run to raise funds for his treatment and it was an honour and privilege to run for such a worthy cause-we have promised to take part every year from now in Ernie's memory.

Our thought are with his immediate family, especially Louise

Keith Hicks

Ernie with St Mary's Primary School