Defender Josh Earl insists Town are still aiming for the top two despite Saturday’s frustrating 1-0 home defeat to Oxford United.
The loss to the U’s saw the Blues drop to eighth in League One, eight points off the top two with only 11 games left to play.
Town dominated the first half and had a number of chances but were unable to take any of them before Oxford’s first passage of passing play in the Blues’ half a minute before half-time carved them open and led to Matty Taylor’s goal.
Earl, who was making his third Town start having joined on loan from Preston in January, admitted it was an exasperating match.
"Yes, a frustrating afternoon,” he said. "Feel like we’ve been on top the majority of the game, we’ve had chances and we’ve just not defended that one chance they’ve had.”
That pattern is one which has become familiar to Town fans this season with a number of games having followed a similar progression.
"It happens in every season, it happens in every team, in every league,” the 21-year-old said. "It’s part of football. But it’s happened to us quite often recently.
"We’ve had many chances and not taken them and then we’ve conceded one sloppy goal we’ve got to do better.”
Why does he believe that’s been the case? "To be honest, I can’t put my finger on an issue. I’m not pointing fingers at my team-mates.
"As a defence we’ve got to defend better, as attackers we’ve got to take some more chances and that’s it at the end of the day.”
The Blues appeared to become more anxious and more frustrated as chances continued to be spurned and Town’s performance drifted in the second period.
"It’s a bit deflating,” the Southport-born defender reflected. "We’ve had loads of chances, we could have put the ball in the back of the net three times and then they go and score one just before half-time. It is obviously frustrating, deflating but we’ve just got to pick ourselves up and go again.”
Looking back at the Oxford goal, Earl felt he and his team-mates could have done better: "I think so, but I think you can do that with every goal. You can look at every goal and pick out little bits that you can do better, so we’ll do the same again and try and rectify our mistakes on the training ground.”
Manager Paul Lambert has stated on a number of occasions that clubs will come to Portman Road, one of League One’s biggest stadiums, and raise their game with the Blues’ home form having suffered as a result.
"Of course they do, but we should as well because it’s a massive club, it’s a massive stadium, it’s a massive fanbase,” Earl said.
"Of course people want to come and play here. We’ve just got to play like it is a massive place and we’ve got to play better.”
He added: "We’re a massive team, we’re a massive club, we’ve got almost unbelievable players that can go and win games all the time, so we’ve just got to go back to the training ground and rectify mistakes we’ve made.”
He says the mood around the training ground remains upbeat: "The mood’s absolutely fine. We’re all still aspiring for the same thing and we still all believe and we still have to believe.
"There’s no point in not believing we can do it because [if that was the case] we’d never be able to do it. If we believe then we’ve always got a chance of doing it.”
And he says he and his team-mates empathise with the frustrations supporters showed at the final whistle: "Of course I understand the fans’ frustration. We’re as frustrated as the fans are.
"We understand that they come every week to watch us play and support us every single week and we appreciate them a lot and we’ve got to be better for them.
"We’ve got to be better for ourselves, we’ve got to be better for the staff, it’s a toughie. We’ve just got to bounce back now.”
A week ago everyone was leaving Portman Road with a spring in their step after the 4-1 vanquishing of Burton Albion, the Blues having come from behind before putting the Brewers to the sword in the second half.
"It could have been the same today but they scored so late on in the first half that it kicked us back a little bit,” Earl added.
"We couldn’t get a foothold in the game in the second half and they’ve managed the game well as well, so it’s a tough one.”
Despite Town now being eighth in the table, Earl insists the aim remains the top two rather than the play-offs.
"We’re still going for the same thing,” he said. "We’ve still got 11 games left to play, there are a lot of points left to play for.”
Looking ahead to next week’s trip to his native North-West and Blackpool, he added: "Three points needed next week, it’s a massive game.”