MARK Cooper has challenged the Swindon Town fans to drown out Coventry City’s vocal away following this afternoon and help their team establish some festive cheer at the County Ground.

After their unpopular, temporary relocation to Northampton this season, Sky Blues supporters have preferred to follow their side on the road rather than at home, with several thousand making the trek to various League One outposts.

Around 7,000 filled stadium:mk for Coventry’s 3-1 victory over MK Dons last month and Cooper thinks Town’s supporters will have a part to play in keeping the City fans quiet today.

“I think their away games are their home games, really, and it makes it a little easier for them to play away from home,” he said.

“I was speaking to the MK Dons manager (Karl Robinson) and he said the worst thing that happened was they lost the toss and in the second half were playing to 7,000 of their own fans.

“It gave them incredible momentum. They were 1-0 down at half-time and ended up winning 3-1. I’d like the Swindon fans to be nice and vocal on Saturday and try to drown out three or four thousand people. I’m sure they can do it.

“I’m sure if we’ve got seven or eight thousand they can easily drown out three or four thousand. That’s the challenge I’d like to set our fans and our challenge will be trying to keep them quiet on the pitch.”

Meanwhile, Coventry boss Steven Pressley has been impressed with what he’s seen from Town so far this season and is expecting a tough test this afternoon.

“There are different ways to win but our players are used to the system, they understand it and believe in it so we don’t want to change from that,” he said.

“Swindon will be a big test. We've watched them a lot and I’ve been hugely impressed by the manner in which they try to play “They handle the ball really well and they’re the highest-passing side in the league. There aren't many teams whose stats are better than our's but we're third behind them and MK Dons.