No ifs, buts or maybes, Town will be playing League One football next season and players and fans alike are left to ponder what might have been.
There was still a chance, albeit a very, very slim one, that victory at Rotherham today could keep the Blues in the hunt for a thrilling climax to the current campaign, but that disappeared with Michael Smith’s 78th minute winner for the Millers.
Wes Burns, who had an earlier chance saved by home keeper Viktor Johansson, said: "I guess you could say it was a tough afternoon. In he first half we played a lot better than we did in the second half. We created a few really good chances in the first half that we didn’t take and we’ve talked about it in the past.
"We need to cash in on the big chances that we do create and we’re not doing that at the moment. We haven’t got that cutting edge or that ruthless, killer instinct to really put teams away when we’re on top.
"In the second half they came out and I thought they were brilliant, to be fair. They really put the squeeze on us and stopped us playing out from the back, which stemmed the way we wanted to play. It meant we couldn’t get anything going and couldn’t connect with our passes, cutting through the lines, things like that. It’s a learning one for us.”
Town’s lack of goals — and even scoring chances — has cost them dearly in recent weeks. They have won just once in six games, taking a mere six points from a possible 18 and scoring only three times in nine hours of football.
As much as Town’s clean sheet record — 12 in 20 games since manager Kieran McKenna took charge in mid-December — has seen them mount a brave play-off challenge, their failure in front of goal has been counter-productive.
Burns, 27, has scored 11 goals this season, 10 of them in the league, and was asked to explain the lack of goals. He added: "We are working on it and I can’t really put my finger on why it’s the case.
"We’re just not putting teams away when we are on top and it’s something we need to address ready for next season because it is going to cost us in the long run if we can’t put teams away when we’re so dominant.
"It can be incredibly frustrating when we’re playing so well and it hurts when you’re not getting anything for your hard work or the rewards of scoring a goal.”
On the club’s guaranteed League One status for a fourth successive season, he continued: "I think we kind of knew anyway that would be the case. I know it’s mathematically impossible now but I think we had got our heads round the fact that we were going to miss out on the play-offs before we came here today.
"We’ve been looking at our remaining games with a view to helping build for next year. Today, we said we could come here with nothing to lose and everything to gain, if we could make people sit up and take notice of what we’ll be like next season.”
Can Town learn from the Millers, who have made a habit of swapping League One for the Championship — and vice versa — in the recent past? The Welshman added: "Yes, they’ve got a style of play that suits the players they’ve got. They’re a big, physical team and they crash the ball into the box.
"They attack the set pieces well and they’re a handful. Obviously, it suits them down to the ground to play that way and they’ve got out of this league on countless occasions playing the same way.
"It works for them but I’m not sure their style of play would work for us. We play the way we play and they play they play, and it works for them.”
Rotherham’s win, only their second in eight games as they have suffered a case of the promotion jitters, took them back into the automatic promotion places.
Could it be the case that Town will have what it takes after a summer of rebuilding under McKenna to be in a similar situation in 12 months’ time? Burns said: "I’d love to be where they are now. It’s not known yet whether they will be going up automatically or if they will be in the play-offs.
"They’re level on points with MK Dons now and they have four games left — four massive games — to either book automatic promotion or a place in the play-offs. If they do end up going up they will be a force to be reckoned with because they’re a great team.
"For us it’s mainly, like I said before, going out there and putting on a good show for our supporters.
"The travelling fans were brilliant today, they follow us up and down the country and they stick with us through thick and thin.
"The last three games are about building something for next year and making sure they have something to cheer about.”
The silver lining to defeat came in the shape of Elkan Baggott’s league debut and Burns added: "He was brilliant, wasn’t he? He was up against Michael Smith, a formidable player in this league who has been nominated for the Player of the Season award, so it goes to show how well Elkan did in keeping him quiet for most of the game.
"The opportunity Smith did get had nothing at all to do with Elkan; it was more about our lack of concentration on a set play.
"It fell nicely for him and if you give Smith an opportunity like that in the box he’s going to punish you. It was a brilliant debut for the lad and we’re all really proud of him.
"As you saw today, Elkan stepped into the biggest game of his career so far, his league debut live on Sky, and he took it in his stride with a brilliant performance.
"That’s the type of lad he is. He wants to learn all the time and he’s bang at it in training, always doing what is asked of him and taking everything on board. Hats off to him, he’s a very driven player.”
Finally, Burns talked about his scoring opportunity in the 72nd minute that arose following Luke Woolfenden’s long-distance stride out of defence right to the other end of the pitch. When the defender’s cut-back was cleared the ball fell invitingly to the ex-Fleetwood player just outside the box and his fierce drive was beaten away by the keeper.
Burns said: "It was literally a case of head down and hitting it as hard as I could. It was probably a nice height for the keeper — it was straight at him to be honest — but they’re the ones that you are hoping might take a deflection and fly past the keeper. It just wasn’t to be.”