BOSS Mark Cooper has sympathy for fans left frustrated by Town’s bid for automatic promotion falling short.

Until February, Swindon were in the thick of the challenge for the top two, even leading the table at the turn of the year.

A drop in form saw their challenge fall away coming into March, though since then they have briefly flirted with second place.

That challenge was all but ended in defeat to relegated Yeovil last Saturday and Cooper’s focus has now switched firmly to play-off preparation.

Having maintained their challenge for two thirds of the season, Cooper understand the disappointment of some sections of the fanbase in the team’s failure to see it through.

“When you’re up there for so long, around the automatic places, people get carried away and rightly so, but we are where we are for a reason,” he told the local media.

“We haven’t limped across the line. Whatever happens, we’ve been in there with five games to go.

“The players have done remarkably well and now we’re going to try to finish it off.

“We have to make sure we are the best team over three games and if we do that we’ve got a hell of a chance.

“In my opinion, it’s more important to go in there with everybody fresh. We can work and prepare on how we’re going to play and maybe have a couple of games to prepare.”

Town have achieved much already this season, but for Cooper the league programme now consigned to the past.

“It doesn’t count for anything for me. It’s a pat on the back but now it’s about making sure we’re ready to go on May 7,” he added. “We had a chance to do something brilliant and now we have a three-game season”