TOWN boss Mark Cooper says it is up to his side to give newly-promoted Scunthorpe a stern re-introduction to League One.

The Football League announced the new season’s fixture list yesterday and paired Town with the Iron on the opening day. The last time the two sides met was April last year as Scunthorpe, in the midst of their unsuccessful relegation battle beat Town 2-1 at Glanford Park.

“It's good to be at home,” Cooper said. “Obviously it's a team that will have their tails up after an amazing run last season. It was a record run for them so they'll be coming up full of confidence and it will be up to us to show them what League One is all about.”

Scunthorpe midfielder Terry Hawkridge said his side’s trip to the County Ground was a difficult opening fixture.

“The Swindon game will be tough like most games in the league this year are going to be, and being away in the first one always makes it that little bit more difficult,” said Hawkridge.

“Swindon are a team that we’ve got to try and beat so it will be hard but I think we’ve got the team to do a good job.

“It’s always good to get the long distance trips out of the way and hopefully pick up as many points as we can on our travels.”

On the rest of the fixture list Cooper said he was pleased to get a few big clashes at home early in the football calendar and is hopeful it can set-up a good season for himself and the club.

“Christmas is always a difficult time so you have to get your head down and plow through but your always looking at the Bristol City games because of the local derby. We played them at home early on last season and beat them. We've got some big fixtures quite early at home which is good because last year all the big teams came to us in the last few weeks.”

He continued: “I'm looking forward to it. It's always exciting when the fixtures come up. Hopefully the fans will be excited too, looking at where they're going and when and hopefully we can have another good season.”