MANAGER Mark Cooper has insisted the ongoing confusion regarding the ownership of Swindon Town will not be a distraction to either him or his players.

Both chairman Jed McCrory and director of football operations Lee Power claimed to have control of the club going into Saturday’s clash with Carlisle, but after a board meeting to discuss the situation was cancelled, director Sangita Shah confirmed after the game the club remains in McCrory’s hands.

While much of the attention was focused on the boardroom on Saturday the Town squad maintained their concentration on the pitch to beat Carlisle 3-1, and when Cooper was asked after the game whether the situation was a distraction he said: “Looking at today you would have to say no, and as a manager I can only control the things I can control and I can’t control what’s going on there.

“I will focus on things I can control like how the team plays and who gets picked, and look after the players as well as I can.

“Since I came here I have always worked with the director of football and that’s not changed.

“I’ve had a fantastic, easy relationship with him.

“You don’t hear the players talking about it at all, and maybe they don’t really know what’s going on, and they didn’t show anything today and got their heads down and played.

“I don’t want to be involved in it, I just want to concentrate on the football and that’s what we did.

“I get on with both of them well and I have no problems with all of them, although I deal more with Lee as he is closer to the football side.”

When asked how important keeping hold of striker Nicky Ajose, whose loan from Peterborough runs out in January, could prove for Town’s promotion hopes, Cooper said: “It’s important we try to keep as many of the good players at the club as we can.

“But what we can’t do is send the club back to where it was before when it nearly went out of business.

“If we can’t afford things we can’t afford them.”