Andre Dozzell accepts Town need to go on a winning run to have any hope of realising their promotion dream this season and with three of the bottom four teams next on the fixture list they will rarely have a better chance of achieving a maximum haul of nine points.
Although the Blues have dropped down to tenth place in the League One table following last night’s results — Blackpool’s 3-1 home defeat of second-placed Peterborough being the most significant — they are just two points adrift of the sixth-placed Tangerines and have games in hand on five of the teams above them.
Fans will be licking their lips in anticipation of the games against the relegation-threatened trio of Wigan, Bristol Rovers and Rochdale, all of whom Town beat 2-0 in the corresponding fixtures earlier in the current campaign, but 21-year-old midfielder Dozzell knows better than to take anything for granted.
He said: "It’s now or never for us. We have 11 games left to play and we need a winning run before the games start to run out. This is it — 11 cup finals left to play so we need to push on and really get in amongst it.
"The next three are not necessarily going to be easy games but as a club we are always looking to win every game and that means nine points, simple as that. But in this league there are no easy games and we will need to work hard in each of them.
"All three of our next opponents are down there and that means they are fighting for their lives and have everything to play for. It’s not going to be easy by all means but we know we have the quality and if we turn up we will get three points from each of them. Also, there’s the stature of our club and the fact that we need to win them.”
Dozzell was asked if he felt the Town squad is mentally strong enough to cope, something a lot of fans have been critical of this season. For example, do they really believe in themselves to the extent that when they go a goal behind they can still go on to win the game, or if they go ahead they can add a second goal to help put the game to bed?
The former England youth international replied: "We know it hasn’t been good enough for the last few games but I believe this week — a whole week of training without a midweek game — will do us the world of good as we look to get the wins and the points to move us into the top six.”
New boss Paul Cook, who has one win, one draw and three defeats from his five games in charge, is hoping the extra time on the training ground will reap substantial benefits in the remaining games and Dozzell added: "We’re halfway through a full week of training and we’ve had a productive time.
"We’ve had double sessions and we’ve put a lot of time and effort into working on structure and shape.
"I would say it has been really productive. I really enjoy the double sessions and it’s good to keep doing it. The manager always talks about the more we do it, the more it’s going to be in our brains, so it’s good for all of us.
"Different managers all have their different philosophies and all that stuff, so it is different, but it has been really good so far and hopefully we can carry that on.
"The new gaffer wants us midfielders to feed the front lads as much as we can and play forward as much as we can. It’s good for us and I hope the results follow.”
Dozzell is still waiting to open his goalscoring account this season and would like nothing more than to weigh in with a few, or at least provide a number of assists, in the final weeks of the season.
But he should not shoulder too much blame because as a team Town have only netted 39 goals in the league this term, a tally that even Saturday’s opponents, third-bottom Wigan, can match.
He said: "It’s clear we haven’t carried enough of a goal threat. I think we all know that we haven’t created enough chances, which has led to us not scoring enough goals, so it is obviously something that we have to work on in training. The more we work on it, the better we will become in this area of the game.”
Dozzell has made more starts in the current campaign than all his previous seasons put together. Only club captain Luke Chambers, with 33 appearances, has played more regularly than the young midfielder, who has 32 so far.
He admitted: "It has been good to make so many starts but if we don’t get to where we want to be as a team I don’t feel it will mean anything,” he added. "We’ve just got to keep working hard and get into the play-offs, if not higher.”