Defender Cameron Burgess accepts Town have only a wafer-thin chance of clinching a play-off place this season but insists their efforts in the current campaign will reinforce their bid for promotion next term.
Burgess, 26, recently returned to first team action, making his first appearance under manager Kieran McKenna as a substitute to replace the injured George Edmundson in the 2-0 home win over Lincoln City early in March.
The Aberdeen-born player, who emigrated down under with his family when he was 11 and has since represented Australia at U20 and U23 levels, has continued to deputise for Edmundson in the Blues’ last four games, including Saturday’s shock 1-0 home defeat by Cambridge United — their first in 12 games and only their third in 18 since Kieran McKenna took charge in December.
"That was a tough one to take after the little run we had put together,” said Burgess, "but we have had a normal training week, working hard and focusing on the next game at Shrewsbury.
"The Cambridge result was a blow. It means we only have an outside chance of making the play-offs but that doesn’t mean we are not going to try to win every single one of the five games we have left. We would do that anyway so nothing has changed on that front.
"Some of the lads have looked at the situation closely and it’s like every season, bar one maybe, for the last 20 years, 74 points would get you in the play-offs. But not this one, obviously, so for me personally it would be good to get to the 74-point mark, or hopefully more.
"At least we could be happy to have got that far, especially given the start we had to the season. It will stand us in good stead to have a successful season next time around, if we’re not able to sneak in this season that is.”
Burgess agreed it was Town’s start to the season, when it took them seven games to register their first win of the season and then struggled for consistency before Paul Cook was replaced by McKenna, that left them with too big a gap to make up on the top six.
He added: "You can look back at a lot of games and think what might have been if we had picked up points here and there, but we have to own it and make sure we don’t do it next season.”
Town’s only hope is that they can win their remaining games, while other play-off hopefuls suffer a calamitous run, but as team-mate Wes Burns admitted in the wake of the loss to Cambridge it is an unlikely scenario given their rivals’ consistency.
Burgess said: "You never say never and stranger things have happened, but we know it’s out of our hands now and we just have to go out and put on some good performances.
"There are no players in our team who would ever down tools, regardless of whether we can or can’t do it, so it’s just a case of next game, three points, put in a good performance and go again for the rest of the games we have left.
"While it would be very disappointing to miss out, there is still a lot of optimism for the future.
"It’s always going to be tough when you bring in a lot of new players to a club, as we did last summer, but the way we have performed during the second half of the season bodes well for the future.
"I think our fans and even outsiders can see that, so if we fall short it will be disappointing, but I think we have shown enough in the last run of games that we can hopefully be in a pretty good place next season.”
Asked if the stability that has come from McKenna taking charge of team affairs — and which was lacking last year for obvious reasons — will make a difference during the summer months, Burgess replied: "It will be up to the people who will be making any changes but I know that everybody here wants to be a part of it next season and that’s probably what the final five games of the season are going to be about.
"Players need to show they are committed and want to stay here, and they need to put themselves out there to demonstrate that. There are a load of players across the different leagues, this league and the league above, that want to be a part of what we are all involved in at the moment.
"Yes, of course there are going to be a couple of changes, but I think the fact that everyone wants to be here for next season is a pretty good starting point and hopefully we will hit the ground running.”