WILL it be third time lucky at the new Wembley? I have a good feeling about Sunday’s play-off final with Preston, not least because after the disappointments against Millwall and Chesterfield, Swindon Town fans will be at the other (East) end of the ground this time.

I expected nothing ahead of the clash with Millwall in 2010 when we last vied for a place in the Championship.

They were a better team than Swindon and had proved it good and proper by beating us 3-2 (we were flattered) in the last game of the season.

We didn’t show up in that final and then there was the infamous Charlie Austin ‘bobble’ which denied us our first goal at the new home of English football.

Two years later in the JPT Final, we again played well below our best in a game with Chesterfield for which we were long odds-on to win.

But there were mitigating circumstances. We were without two of our key players in Caddis and Flint, and Spireites boss John Sheridan definitely won the tactical battle with Paolo di Canio.

Sheridan formulated a successful plan to nullify Matt Ritchie while di Canio gave debuts to two new players – in a Wembley final!

Preston beat us 3-0 on this season’s run-in, as Millwall had done in 2010, but since we put out a reserve side I don’t feel the result has much bearing.

But there are good memories of our clashes with manager Simon Grayson’s teams. We dominated Preston and beat them 1-0 earlier this season and I well remember one of the great County Ground nights of recent years when Town thumped Grayson’s Leeds 3-0.

Obviously confidence has risen after the play-off games against Sheffield United, when I’m glad to say we totally abandoned the nonsense tippy-tappy stuff at the back and were much the better for it.

Taking the players to Wembley on Wednesday for an early sighter to calm nerves – and take a few selfies – may be another masterstroke from boss Cooper, although I think the players may have been better employed watching a few DVDs of Chelsea since Christmas to learn something about defending ‘in transition’.

An empty Wembley, with a few groundsmen, Sky Sports technicians and Bristol Rovers fans who haven’t yet found found the exits after their play-off final, is not going to release a single butterfly.

Cooper may be playing mind games with Grayson by saying he will have a full squad to choose from.

We should at least have a much stronger bench than we did against Sheffield when it looked worryingly thin. This time there will be game changers if we need them.

I hope Cooper is right for the sake of the recently-injured Thompson brothers Nathan and Louis, who have worked their way through the ranks at Swindon – and are immensely popular with the fans because if it.

It would be devastating to say the least if captain Nathan misses out, while for Louis a Wembley final would be no more fitting way to sign off ahead of his move to Premiership (maybe) Norwich.

Preston may have finished seven points clear of Swindon in the final table but they are not a better side and in a one-off affair I would back our crown jewels – Luongo, Kasim and Foderingham – rather than theirs.

And if his performances in the semi final are anything to go by, Ben Gladwin could yet be the man to watch on the big stage.

Could he yet prove another diamond in the non-league rough discovered by Swindon, like the afore-mentioned Mr Austin?