MARK Cooper is hoping to learn from the last time Town featured in a two-legged knockout game to guide his side through the travails of their play-off bid.

In the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy last season, Town faced Peterborough over two legs for shot at Wembley glory.

Just over a year on and the same scenario has reared its head. This time, the stakes are a fair bit higher and unlike in the JPT, extra-time is available, should it be required after 180 minutes.

Yet, even with the prize of Championship football presenting itself like the last burger at a barbecue, the Town boss will not be playing it safe.

Bristol City and MK Dons have already shown the road out of League One is the route marked attack and Cooper also believes it is the way to go.

“We certainly believe (playing attacking football) it’s the right way to go,” he told the local media.

“We’re going to go in the play-offs and try and attack it, try and go on the front foot and be aggressive and attacking.”

However, Town’s forward-thinking approach will not come at the cost of game smarts and the Peterborough encounters last year have given Cooper a bank of experience to draw on it that regard.

“The last time we played a two-legged game, we should have gone through,” he added.

“We were winning 1-0. We should have had a penalty to make it 2-0 and we’re through. We didn’t get it, we got stung at the end and lost on penalties.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves and not worry about the occasion.

“At the end of the day, it’s two games of 90 minutes, though the second one might be longer. We just have to not get carried away with all the razzmatazz.

“Players know there are times in games where you have to manage it - if you’re 2-0 down, you have to gamble “If you’re winning, then you can come off it and not gamble as much. (It takes) common sense really, but the players know what to do.”

Town lost that JPT game to Posh on spot-kicks and have had an erratic time of it from 12 yards this season, with four penalty misses shared between Michael Smith and Andy Williams.

With that in mind, the players have been honing their spot-kick technique ahead of the play-offs.

“We have three games to navigate to get promoted. You could go and win none of those games and still get promoted, so form can go right out of the window,” Cooper explained.

“We’ll be practicising (penalties) thoroughly. It is a repetitive technique and, the more you do it, the theory is the better you should get. hen the pressure’s on it becomes more difficult.

“We will spend some time on it and I’ve got in my mind seven or eight players who could be on the pitch at that time,who would take penalties. It’d be those eight players who will practice.

“There are certain players who I want to take a penalty, who I know the atmosphere wouldn’t affect. I hope that it’s done long before then.”