Freddie Sears has echoed the view of many Town fans by admitting: “It has been a disappointing, frustrating season and I’ll be glad when it’s over, to be honest.”
Town head for Burton on Friday night — it will be their first-ever competitive visit to the Pirelli Stadium — with a nine-point cushion separating them from third-bottom Blackburn.
But 27-year-old striker Sears is taking nothing for granted and added: "It’s been a long, tough season for everyone at the club. Hopefully we can pick up a few wins, get safe and then draw a line under it. I think we probably need one more win.
"Blackburn are not winning games at the moment and we’re nine points ahead of them with a better goal difference. If we can get a win as soon as possible we can move on and start thinking about next season.”
Town’s lack of success this season — they currently sit in 17th place — has shocked a lot of people after they reached the play-offs in 2015 and then finished seventh last term.
Sears said: "It has been tough for everyone but at the same time there are a lot of good teams in the Championship who have spent a lot of money.
"For us, we haven’t invested as heavily as other teams and we’re competing with the bottom half and mid-table teams. If you look at Aston Villa, Norwich and Newcastle, who have all invested a lot of money, they are towards the top of the league.”
Asked if it would require some serious investment in the summer for Town to challenge next season, ex-West Ham youngster Sears responded: "It’s obviously not down to me but it looks that way in this division. You pay the money, you get the results.”
Former Town striker Luke Varney, who has yet to score in 11 appearances in all competitions for the Brewers since joining them in January, is likely to be on the bench for Nigel Clough’s men on Friday.
Sears added: "Luke was a big character here, really good to have around the place, and it was obviously a shame to see him go. But for him it was the better option in the end, going back closer to his family and with a bit more stability. It was sad to see him go but it will be good to catch up with him on Friday.
"I’ve never played at Burton before and I’m looking forward to it. It looks quite a tight ground and it’s probably the smallest in the Championship. But I was at Colchester for three years so I’m used to grounds like that.
"They’ve come up from League Two to League One and now the Championship, so fair play to them for doing so well. We try to win every game and this is an important one so we’ll be going all out to get the three points.
"But if you’ve got to take a point you’ve got to take a point. We’ve got five games left and we’ll be trying to finish the season on a high.”