Double-goalscorer Alan Judge says Town now need to build on yesterday's 4-1 home victory over Burton Albion with the Irishman believing home form will ultimately be what decides whether the Blues' season will end in success.
"I think it had everything,” Judge said looking back on the victory over the Brewers. "We weren’t the best in the first 20 minutes, although we still had a chance in the first two or three, Keano [Will Keane] was unlucky not to score and then they scored.
"Then I should have scored, Kayden [Jackson] should have scored, but I think the way we reacted was the best way. It was a professional performance in the end.”
Reflecting on the significance of the result and performance, he added: "Eight left at home, then another four away, so ultimately it’s probably going to come down to home form.
"The fans come out in their thousands every week and home form is going to be important in the run-in, so that’s a good start for the home games we’ve got coming up.
"We can’t let this good performance go, we have to carry it on next week and Oxford are a very good team. We’ll start building up to them next week.
"I know the manager there [Karl Robinson], he’s a good manager, he’s a good coach, he’s got good players and hopefully the weather will be better than when we played them up there.”
Turning to the weather on Saturday and the impact of Storm Dennis on the match, the 31-year-old felt the conditions weren’t as bad as had been feared.
"Today was actually alright, the pitch played well, the pitch is holding up quite well,” he added. "I don’t want to speak too soon, we’ve got a lot of home games coming up.
"Today was about just getting the win but I thought we played some good football in the end.”
Judge, who joined the Blues from Brentford in January 2019, had a long wait for his first Town goal, his account opener coming in the FA Cup replay at Lincoln in November.
His first home goal then came in the league against Accrington in January and his two on Saturday were his first brace for the Blues.
However, the Irish international was disappointed not to claim a third: "Yes, devastated I didn’t get the hat-trick, the first one [when he hit the bar at 0-1] I hit it a little bit much.
"The one I did score in the first half I’ve managed to get it in and the second one, funnily enough I slipped, the keeper slipped and went under him and I’ll take it and I also got an assist, so I’m delighted.
"I know I can score goals, I know people get frustrated and I’ve taken a lot of flak this year because people thought I’d be the top player, but sometimes it doesn’t work out like that.
"The only way is to keep working hard and keep doing it and I’ll take that responsibility, I’ll never shy away from that responsibility and I’ll keep going.”
The Dubliner was most pleased with his assist for Kayden Jackson’s second goal: "To be honest with you, people don’t understand, I prefer that than scoring, I always do.
"I love playing those kind of passes. I’ve had a few of the this year and they haven’t worked out but that’s the type of player I am.
"I do risk versus reward and then sometimes I’ll get people’s backs up but that’s the way I am as a player and I think that’s probably why the gaffer likes me.
"He knows I won’t shy away from the hard passes. If I lose it, I lose it, one week it’ll come off, one week it won’t.
"The lad took a heavy touch and I managed to get it through his legs and I was just delighted it went in, I didn’t care.
"I think it hit Kayden in the face! When he ran over to me he just said it hit him right in the face. I said it didn’t matter as long as it went in.
"I think that settled us for the second half. We came out in the second half, we adjusted a little bit. They played some good football, I thought they were a decent team. They were getting at us down the side and that little tweak at half-time made a difference.”
Judge explained that his boot-throwing goal celebration after scoring his first goal was down to a new pair supplied by adidas in which he hadn’t overly impressed in training earlier in the week.
"We’re contracted to wear the new boots when they come out, so I wore last week at training and the gaffer had a joke with me that I was never to wear those boots again!” he laughed. "So I took it off, just messing, throwing it towards the gaffer as a bit of banter.
"Obviously it goes down well as long as nobody thinks there was aggression in it, it was just a bit of fun because we all spoke about it, it was a bit of a laugh. He’s not getting them off me now. I’ll be wearing them until the new colour comes out.”
Judge says if the Blues can take Saturday’s performance into next weekend’s game against Oxford and continue to improve their home form they could get some momentum going into the business end of the season.
"If we can do what we did today and make it count next weekend,” he said. "There’s no point in us talking about it because I know people are fed up of hearing that kind of stuff, we have to do it again next week.
"They’re all big games now and I think particularly at home is going to tell where we’ll end up at the end of the season.”