Town MD Ian Milne says expectations will inevitably be higher next season after the Blues’ reached the Championship play-offs in 2014/15, their best performance for a decade.

“I think we ended the season doing much better than we thought we were going to do,” Milne admitted.

“And more importantly I think we’re starting next season from [a higher point] and expectations will be higher.”

He added: “I think given where we’ve come from in the past two years [the season was a success]. You know as well as I do that you can’t build a team overnight."

“Burnley couldn’t, Manchester City can’t. It does take two or three years for a good manager to build up a good team, to get them to where we want them to be.

“We’re in a totally different place to where we were this time last season. The expectation levels will be even higher.

“I think the respect and hopefully fear we’ll get from other clubs will be increased. Certainly, we will deserve a lot of respect for where we’ve ended up.”

While a similar finish and points total - Town amassed 78, far more than is usually required for sixth - would again be viewed as a decent enough campaign, fans will be hoping to make a challenge for the automatic promotion places next season.

And quite rightly, says Milne: “Comparing where we were last year to this year and given where we finished, why shouldn’t we have a really big hope that we can expect that we should be at or very close to the automatic promotion places?

“It’s getting the consistent results like Watford did. Where did they come from? They got the consistent results.

“Why shouldn’t we be asking the question about automatic promotion given that we beat Watford twice?”

Regarding the play-off semi-final second leg defeat at Carrow Road, Milne isn’t blaming Christophe Berra for his red card.

“It was a reaction,” he said. “I don’t hold with the people who were critical of him, it was a reaction.

“The vast majority of the fans haven’t been critical and what really picked us up was coming in on that Monday morning and finding the phones ringing off the hook for season tickets for next season.

“I think actually, Monday’s result, with Norwich, the team we were beaten by, winning was a big plus point.

“I look at it with a glass half full, I think it just showed how well we’ve actually done, in that we overachieved for the season, given that the points were so tight.

“Those few people who may not have been believing, I think that’s going to turn a lot of them and they’ll think ‘Hang on, this is a team that’s not just gone in the oven to be baked, this one is coming up very, very nicely to hit the season full on’.”

He says that the play-off semi-finals were no money-spinner with the Football League taking 50 per cent of the revenue and clubs paying out play-off bonuses to players.

The Blues MD says owner Marcus Evans remains “as committed as ever” and was “happy with the season” and despite recently having been pictured outside the ground with a young fan has no plans to abandon his policy of keeping a low profile.

Meanwhile, Milne will be amongst the Town representatives at the Suffolk Show today and tomorrow, along with the likes of Simon Milton and Alan Lee.

The academy and Advanced Coaching Programme will take part in demonstrations, while there will also be a Town bouncy castle, with the club at stands 673-675 alongside BBC Suffolk and the East of England Co-op.

Photo: Action Images

MaySixth added 13:59 - May 27 With all this expectation then we probably need some more money to build the squad to deal with the expectations. Over to you Marcus.
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itsonlyme added 14:34 - May 27 Of course the fans expectations will be automatic and why not. Anything less than top two will be seen by a lot of fans as failure! We are going to need a lot of plus signings to achieve that. It is going to be a difficult season and we must eradicate the errors and take the chances when they come!
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itsonlyme added 14:34 - May 27 Of course the fans expectations will be automatic and why not. Anything less than top two will be seen by a lot of fans as failure! We are going to need a lot of plus signings to achieve that. It is going to be a difficult season and we must eradicate the errors and take the chances when they come!
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Laxfield_Llewellyn added 14:51 - May 27 Let me guess...last season's expectations were for a mid-table finish, so this year we're shooting for top-half.
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jas0999 added 18:14 - May 27 Agree. Good interview. I'm expecting a automatic promotion challenge. We need reinforcements that's for sure. Squad is extremely small currently. Can't afford not being able to name a full quota of subs again and expect promotion. Minimum requirement is the play offs.
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Steve_M added 19:07 - May 27 Talk of two-to-three year planning makes a nice change; just shame we didn't do that eight years ago when Evans took over. Still, I think we can be genuinely optimistic this Summer that our club is heading in the right direction again.
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Steve_D added 20:03 - May 27 Agree , good interview , I'm sure it will do exactly what it's aimed to do , get a few more season tickets sold , but as Marcus Evans has already said he will continue with the freebie policy and we had the exact same speech when cresswell was sold. , don't expect anything to come of this
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Steve_D added 20:05 - May 27 Sorry this comment was meant for the other story about money being available.
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blueboy1981 added 20:39 - May 27 ......... and so they should !!! ..... being the response to the headline. Why even consider expecting less ??
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Fatboy added 07:31 - May 28 It should be easier to attract good players to the club this summer as they will see Town as genuine promotion candidates.
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DurhamTownFan added 09:47 - May 28 Agree with Fatboy. I was happy to get in the play-offs even though I didn't think we'd win them precisely because it makes it easier to bring players in.
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