Tommy Smith hopes the clean sheet that helped Town to a welcome win over Bolton in midweek will be the first of many in their remaining eight games.
It was Town’s first in 10 games as they also won for the first time in five to ensure they go to Watford on Saturday with hopes still high of capturing a play-off place.
Smith, who will be 25 at the end of this month, said: "Obviously it was important to get back to winning ways and all the lads are pleased that we managed to do that. Hopefully that kick-starts a good run for us.
"It wasn’t a classic but we got the points and that’s what it’s all about now. It doesn’t matter how you get the points, as long as you get the points on the board. It’s likely that our chance of being promoted automatically has gone but you never know.
"The top teams have all got to play against each other so they can’t all win every game. We just have to keep picking up as many points as we can and see where that takes us.”
Town have won just five of their 14 league games since the turn of the year and New Zealand international Smith, who has enjoyed an uninterrupted 27-game run in the side, is hopeful of a more consistent finish to the campaign.
He added: "Every team has a poor run and unfortunately we went on a longer one than we would have perhaps liked. But I don’t think too many things changed.
"We just conceded sloppy goals and we didn’t finish the good chances, but hopefully we’ve turned a corner now and we can get back to winning ways and continue on a good run.
"The sort of run we have been on since Christmas can happen to any team throughout the course of the season. It’s just about eradicating those mistakes and cracking on. Keeping clean sheets is important and it was nice to get back to that on Tuesday night.
"We always work hard in training and we do our separate defensive stuff with the gaffer, as the strikers do with TC, so it’s been no different. It’s just been a case of it not working as well as it was earlier on in the season. But, like I say, hopefully we’ve turned the corner.
"We all do all our defensive stuff with the gaffer. He says that he wasn’t a footballer — he was a head it and kick it type — and that sometimes, when things aren’t going your way you have to get back to the basics and do that first and foremost. He passes on his words of wisdom and we all take it on board.”
Smith also laments the odd moment of ill-fortune during the recent dip in form.
"There has been a case of us not getting the rub of the green recently," he added.
"If you look back to the Middlesbrough game, Murph has a shot that deflects off Freddie and hits the post. If that goes in then the whole game is completely different.
"Some games turn on a little bit of luck or a decision. We didn’t have that in the few games before Bolton but then we got that on Tuesday night with Tabby not hitting his strike cleanly and it finding the corner.
"You look at the Brentford game and we should probably have won that. Even at Middlesbrough things could have been different. We haven’t been playing poorly — in fact we probably played better in those two games than we did against Bolton on Tuesday night.
"That happens in football. Sometimes you don’t deserve the win and you get the three points, then sometimes you play well and they manage to sneak the win. That’s just how it goes and we’ll keep chipping away at our points total.”