Town boss Kieran McKenna says he has no specific targets in the final five matches other than aiming to win each game, starting with Saturday's visit to Shrewsbury.
The Blues’ hopes of making the play-offs were all but ended by Cambridge’s 1-0 win at Portman Road last week with McKenna’s ninth-placed side now eight points from the top six with only those five matches, including games against high-flyers Wigan and Rotherham over Easter, still to play.
Quizzed on whether he has any specific objectives during the remaining fixtures, if he is aiming to hit a particular target points-wise, McKenna said: "Not really. To be honest, we haven’t worked along those lines all along in terms of points totals. We want to try and win every game.
"We’ve got Shrewsbury, who are a team who are on a very good home run, especially in terms of their defensive organisation, they’ve been in good form.
"And then we’ve got two of the top teams in the division, the teams in first and third place, so we know that’s going to be a massive challenge, a great opportunity for us to see where we’re at as a team and two games in really quick succession that we can look forward to.
"Our focus is certainly on the games ahead. We have some really good games to look forward to but we’ve got to make sure we start the run well at Shrewsbury and have a good response from last weekend and a good performance, and set ourselves up well for the rest of the season.”
Reflecting further on the Shrews, McKenna says their organisation at the back has particularly caught his eye with the Steve Cotterill’s side having kept six clean sheets in their last eight matches.
"Especially since Christmas, I think their clean sheet record has been up there with anyone’s in the league, including ours,” he said.
"And I think even in terms of expected goals conceded they're really in a good position in the league table.
"That doesn't come by accident. It usually comes by organisation and work on the training pitch. And there's obviously been some good work done there with Steve and his staff, so credit to them for that.”
He added: "They've been excellent. I’ve watched a lot of their games over the last two months and I've been really impressed, especially the defensive organisation.
"They're right up there in terms of clean sheets and the number of goals they've conceded, but also the lack of chances that teams have had against them. And they've also been very competitive against some of the best teams in the league.
"Probably last weekend, the game against MK [when they lost 2-0] was the first game they've had in quite a while where I thought they were probably outplayed a little bit and I thought MK put in a really, really good performance.
"But other than that, I think every game I've seen Shrewsbury play over the last period they have been really strong, really competitive, really well organised and deservedly getting some good results.
"So credit to them, there's obviously some good work going on on the training pitch and it's going to be a big challenge for us to go and break them down at their home pitch which not many teams have been able to do.”
Despite the play-off push realistically being over, McKenna says it’s not the time to start blooding younger players at Montgomery Waters Meadow.
"I think our priority very much at the moment is getting the best team together to play in truth. We have to look to win the game and then look to win a game after that,” he said.
"At the moment our 100 per cent focus is on the next game and putting out the team that we think is going to be most competitive and give us the best chance to go and win a game against Shrewsbury.
"We always have an eye on the longer term and continue to work and develop the players over the long term, but at the moment it has to be all eyes and all focus towards the game on Saturday.”
McKenna has said a number of his players have been unwell this week, although fortunately not suffering with Covid, and won’t make decisions on his team and squad until after Friday training.
Assuming everyone is OK to travel McKenna would ideally stick with Christian Walton in goal and a back three of Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess, with Wes Burns and Dominic Thompson the wing-backs.
Skipper Sam Morsy will be in the centre of the midfield with Tyreeq Bakinson probably returning to the XI for Tom Carroll.
In attack, McKenna will again hope to pick two from Bersant Celina, Sone Aluko and Conor Chaplin as number 10s, while Macauley Bonne could come back into the side as the central striker for James Norwood.
Defender Ethan Ebanks-Landell is a doubt for the visitors with a knee problem which has been hampering him in recent games.
Shrewsbury are currently 16th in the table, 16 points behind the Blues and 11 away from the relegation zone. At home this season, they have won nine, drawn five and lost six.
Prior to the Shrews’ 2-0 defeat away to the MK Dons last weekend, they had won three on the trot, including a 5-0 home win against Morecambe and a 3-0 surprise success at Rotherham.
Historically, the Blues have had much the better of matches between the two sides, winning 16 games (12 in the league), losing three (one) and drawing nine (seven).
Town are unbeaten against the Shrews in 11 games stretching back to an old Second Division match at Gay Meadow in January 1987 when Bobby Ferguson’s side were defeated 2-1.
At Portman Road in October, Bonne was the hero as Town recorded back-to-back wins for the first time under Paul Cook by beating Shrewsbury 2-1.
Chaplin gave the Blues the lead in the 23rd minute, but Shaun Whalley levelled for Shrewsbury on 28.
However, 10 minutes in the second half Bonne flicked home his ninth goal of the season from a Lee Evans corner to seal a deserved three points.
In May, Town’s final away game of 2020/21 at Montgomery Waters Meadow - a fixture which had been postponed an hour before its scheduled start due to a frozen pitch in February - ended in their ninth 0-0 draw of the season.
Clear-cut chances were rare at both ends with Troy Parrott forcing home keeper Harry Burgoyne into a couple of saves and the Irishman and Norwood both shot over for the Blues, while sub Dan Udoh looped a header onto the top of the Town cross-bar at the other.
Former Blues loan centre-half Matthew Pennington joined Shrewsbury on loan from Everton in January last year, a switch which was made permanent in the summer.
Pennington, 27, made 31 starts and scored one goal while with the Blues during the 2018/19 campaign.
Saturday’s referee is Darren Handley from Lancashire, who has shown 54 yellow cards and four red in 13 matches this season. Handley will be taking charge of his first Town match.
Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Burgess, Baggott, Burns, Vincent-Young, Thompson, Penney, Morsy, El Mizouni, Carroll, Bakinson, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin, Bonne, Norwood, Pigott, Simpson.