SWINDON boss Mark Cooper insisted his side will travel to Griffin Park on Boxing Day with no fear despite facing League One’s form team at the site of last season’s play-off semi-final heartbreak.

Town lost a dramatic penalty shootout on their last visit to Brentford in May after the second leg of the rollercoaster tie finished 3-3 and now return to face a Bees team which has won nine of their last 10 games to sit third in the table.

Brentford could go top of League One with victory over the Robins but Cooper is determined to go out and attack Mark Warburton’s in-form side and insisted any bad memories of last season’s crushing loss will not be a major factor.

“When you go away from home and you play against the form team in the league you have to give them respect but we can’t take away too much from our strength which is clearly letting players go out and attack,” he said.

“We have to make sure we’re in the game to win it and we’re not too far behind by half-time but we won’t change too much and we are going to try and go out and attack.

“I said last week we needed to go out there and try and win 15 games to get in the play-offs and that’s now 14 (following Saturday’s 2-1 win over Coventry), so we’re going to try and tick another one off that list.

“It (the play-off loss) was last season and it was a long time ago but all I know is we have a lot of young players with fantastic ability and if they are at it and decide to play they can put in some very good performances. I’ve not heard any of them talk about the game last season at all to be honest because it’s a fresh group with a lot of new players so there’s no fear there.

“Their ability is unquestioned and if we can strike a balance between defence and attack then they can go as far as they want.”

Cooper is likely to have Nathan Thompson available again with the defender now recovered from a chest infection, while Ryan Mason is over a virus.

Injured duo Tijane Reis and Troy Archibald-Henville are now back in full training and are pencilled in to play a development game at the beginning of January.