MARK Cooper will not be treating Swindon Town’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy area final clash with Peterborough as a personal grudge match, despite a place at Wembley being on the line for the victor.

Cooper, who was sacked after just 13 games as manager of Peterborough in 2010, guided his Town team to a penalty shootout victory over Stevenage at the County Ground last night to secure safe passage to the last four of the JPT.

There he will come up against the team with whom he shares a number of unhappy memories relating to his brief stint in charge at London Road almost four years ago.

However, Cooper is not about to get overly sentimental about the double-legged tie.

When asked by the Advertiser whether there was a personal element to the fixture, he said: “Not, not at all. Never. I’ve got too much water under the bridge for that.

“They’ve gone their way and I’ve gone mine, I’m immensely happy where I am, they’ve got a really good manager and there’s no point getting personal about it now. It was a long time ago.

“I’m sure it’s the tie of the round, I’m sure it will be on telly but it’s just like the first game of the season for me. I hope my team go out and give a real account of themselves, I hope people turn around and say ‘you know what, they can’t half play football’.

“If we can do that and sustain that for long periods then we have a chance of getting through but if we play like we did in the second half tonight we won’t get to Wembley and I have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“I’m looking forward to the game, it’ll be a cracker – two really good football teams going for it.”

Meanwhile, the Adver understands Luke Rooney has had his contract cancelled at the County Ground by mutual consent.

The winger, who recently returned early from a loan spell at Crawley, has struggled in Wiltsire since joining the club from Gillingham in January 2012.