SWINDON Town manager Mark Cooper has urged his players to steer clear of a potential Easter Monday banana skin when Bradford City visit the County Ground this afternoon.

A run of five victories in seven League One outings has led to Cooper’s side being red-hot favourites ahead of the clash but the Robins boss is concerned complacency may be allowed to seep into the dressing room in SN1.

Bradford are no slouches themselves, having kept clean sheets against Rothehram United, Peterborough United and Leyton Orient in recent weeks, and the Bantams are unbeaten in three matches away from home.

Cooper, therefore, suggested taking a win for granted might not be the most sensible option. He told the Advertiser: “You’ve always got to be wary when you’ve had good form and you come to a game which everyone says you should win. They’re the dangerous ones and we have to make sure we take care of it and do it in a professional manner, which we did (at Coventry).

“I saw them play against Rotherham last week. They’re very hard-working, their manager is very well organised, his teams are very diligent and very hard to beat.

“They gave us a really good game around Christmas and I’m expecting nothing less on Monday.”

Victory at Coventry City on Good Friday kept Town’s slim chances of making the play-offs alive, though Cooper remains more intent on providing an entertaining end to the campaign rather than praying for a miracle.

The good run of form over the course of the past month lends plenty of encouragement ahead of 2014/15 but Cooper believes his side needed to go through the tough spell of January and February, where they managed just two wins in 15 outings, to reach their current heights.

“The pressure was on (at Coventry) to win to keep us in it. They’ve dealt with that, though you could see at the end that we were a little bit frantic and didn’t take care of the ball enough but we kept going and got what I thought we deserved,” he said.

“I think it’s a by-product of what we went through in that month. To get to where we want to get to get we’re going to have to overplay at times. It doesn’t just happen, you have to play and go through the bad times to get them used to playing that way all the time.

“Yes we suffered in the league but in the long run I think it will stand the club in better stead.”