Torquay have promotion belief, says striker Cooke

Cody Cooke's goals have helped Torquay United stay in the National League title race

Torquay United striker Cody Cooke says the Gulls believe they can win promotion back to the National League.

Cooke, 32, has come off the bench to score the winning goal in both of Torquay's past two National League South matches.

He and his team-mates are on an eight-game unbeaten run that has included winning each of their past four away matches.

Fourth-placed Torquay are three points off leaders Worthing with five games to go in what looks set to be a dramatic finale to the season.

"I've been in teams where we've been close to promotion but probably within the group you haven't really believed you can go on and actually get promoted," Cooke told BBC Radio Devon.

"There's a real belief in this group that we can go on and do [it].

"At the minute the results are going our way and momentum is key at this time of the season, so we've just got to use that to our advantage.

"At the moment everyone's in a good place, we're good in terms of form, we're kicking on at the right time with five games to go."

Torquay play four sides in the bottom half of the table in their remaining five games - as well as a potentially crucial trip to third-placed Truro City on Good Friday.

The Gulls' recovery has come less than a year after the club was taken over by a consortium of local businesspeople.

Torquay had been in administration at the end of last season after former owner Clarke Osborne stopped funding the club.

Cooke says Torquay, who spent 87 years in the bottom two tiers of the English Football League before relegation in 2014, are capable of clawing their way back into the fifth tier two years after dropping down from the National League.

"You've got to dream about going and getting promoted and I can't see why not in terms of what we've got and where we've put ourselves," added Cooke.

"The league's not false, at this time of the season you are where you are on merit.

"We look around and the other teams who are in around us, if we've not beaten them during the season we've had good encounters with them, so we've got nothing to fear."