There was just no snap there says coach after Peter Cope loses to John Green in Hartlepool v Boro derby

John Green lands a left on the chin of Peter Cope at the Summer Rumble that was held at the Stadium of Light.

When Cope Jnr defeated Green to lift the vacant belt last October, the Hartlepool camp were unhappy with the scoring of referee Andrew Wright who gave him just a one-point margin.

Yesterday, Mr Wright judged Green a 98-94 winner at the Stadium of Light and Cope Snr said there were no complaints this time over the scores.

“John Green won the fight, I have no problem with the decision,” said the Gus Robinson Developments head coach. “I knew John would have improved from the first fight but I know Peter has come in so much.

“There was just no snap there. Peter just could not get going.

“Everything had gone all right in training, he was fit and done the weight with no bother whatsoever.

“He sparred all right as well. Yes, he had a bit of trouble with his elbow that kept him from punching for a couple of days, but every fighter had a niggle or two in a long camp before a bout.

“There was nothing there.

“When he was getting through, he got picked off coming in.”

Cope Snr said he was shocked by the defeat but denied there was any complacency.

“I didn’t see that coming,” he said.

“I knew John would have improved from the first fight but I know Peter has come on so much.

“But in the fight, there was just no snap there.

“After few rounds I said ‘you are going to have to go a bit here’ and he tried to go up a gear but it wasn’t really anything there.

“He battled it out as you’d expect Peter to do.

“There wasn’t a lack of effort, you could never say that against Peter.

“He couldn’t get going and whatever he tried just didn’t seem to work.

“It’s massively disappointing.

“I was confident he’d win after seeing how much he’s improved.

“But I did say that if John had a good day and Peter had a bad one he’d have his hands full and may be that was the case.”

Green’s manager Michael Marsden said: “I think it was a case that John had learned fromthe last fight when he was quite inexperienced.

“He was much-improved and think he was too good in every department .John has grown as a fighter and he was very determined.”