THERE has been a lot of talk about radars around Swindon Town this week and it is nonsense.

Both Wes Foderingham and Michael Smith have recently said Town are above it, whatever that means. Boss Mark Cooper seems to be the only one who did not get that particular memo.

Asked again yesterday about presence above or under said detection instrument the Town boss still insisted his side were very much under.

Cooper did try and explain what he meant when he talked about ‘the radar’. To him it was being perceived as less fashionable and having a bit of shade cast their way by the success of another local club with a bigger national recognition in Bristol City.

Those points are certainly true. The County Ground enjoyed the biggest presence of national press when Steve Cotterill’s side paid a visit and a regular Saturday night Twitter gripe concerns Town’s lowly slot on the Football League Show.

Though surely whether or not the club’s gravitational pull for media coverage is growing has no impact on how the Robins’ League One opponents prepare to play them, a point Cooper did concede.

For me that is the radar and Town have been beeping like a drug dealer’s pager since they hammered Sheffield United in the first month of the season. Since then almost every side that has come up against Swindon have changed their game to deal with Town’s dominance of the ball.

If you are off the radar then that is not happening. Teams are turning up and thinking they can force their own game on you and being taken by surprise as they are overrun. That is pretty blatantly not the case.

Even if that level of tactical dominance does not raise you above the parapet then how about being England’s fourth highest goalscorers?

No? How about form then? Town’s recent run of five consecutive wins, the majority of those over table-top sides, has established a solid 11-point gap over last Saturday’s vanquished opponents, seventh placed Notts County, and Cooper’s side. Swindon are now firmly entrenched with the bookies as a promotion favourite.

That all says to me that everyone knows Town are to be taken seriously, the league is well aware of what they are about and they are trying to do something about it but cannot.

Let’s stop playing innocent and acknowledge this is a good side playing well. No radar required.