TOWN boss Mark Cooper is far happier with the state of his Swindon Town squad than he was this time last year.

With the transfer window concluding last Monday, Cooper described the club’s business as “fantastic”. Now, having a had a few days working with his completed squad, the Robins manager feels he operating with a far more settled group than at the same stage last year.

By the first week of September in 2013, Cooper had been permanently confirmed in the job for a couple of weeks, albeit having been in temporary charge for longer, and was working with what he described as a ‘revolving door mentality’.

The situation at the County Ground seems more stable this season. The team are set-up in a identifiable way, the club have the majority of last season’s first team back, with Alex Pritchard, Nile Ranger, Jay McEveley and Troy Archibald-Henville arguably the only key players no longer around.

It is a situation Cooper is certainly more content with.

He said: “I was nowhere near as happy (as this time last year) because we were still in a revolving door kind of mentality.

“We had a lot of things to tidy up whereas this year, we don’t really feel like that. It feels to me 99 per cent of the players that are here are going to be here for a while and it gives us a calm, sensible base to work from.”

Town’s excellent early-season form, now coupled with a settled squad has created a sense of optimism around the club but Cooper would not be drawn into making any bold statements on where Swindon might end up this season.

“We’ve gone from the week started against Scunthorpe - people telling me we were 38/1 and we were going to get relegated.

“All of a sudden we play five or six where we’ve played well and we’re talking about promotion,” he added.

“I’m not going to say this and that. All I’m saying that if we keep performances right then who knows?

“The players want to win every game. They see the teams that they’re playing against, they’ve seen teams they’ve played against last year and they would think they’re as good as them.

“They’re a confident bunch. They know that they can play football, they know that they can be as a good a footballing team as anyone in the league - there’s no fears from them.”

Swindon’s players have been given the weekend and Monday off.

With power maintenance going on at the club on Monday, there will be no staff at the County Ground, including at the STFC Store.