Boss Kieran McKenna says the Blues aren’t in a position to be thinking about winning runs just the next win after Bristol Rovers frustrated his side to a 0-0 draw, a result which saw Town drop to fourth having won only four of their last 15 games and one in their last eight.
Town have now drawn 12 of their 31 matches, more than anyone else in the division and McKenna admits the stalemates, six in their last eight, are killing his team’s once promising season.
"Yes, there’s no doubt about it, we’ve drawn too many games,” he said. "It’s extremely frustrating for everybody.
"In isolation, it’s not a disaster of a result, it’s not an easy place to come on a Tuesday night, and not made easier by the way that they approached the game.
"But when you accumulate draws, each one feels really, really bad and it’s an extremely frustrating feeling tonight.
"But we just need to fight for the next win. You get that next win and everything looks a little bit different and you give yourself a chance to try and build on that.
"All we can do now is get ready for Saturday and fight to get the win to end this run of draws and look to build on that.”
"Asked what the issue is and why things are different to earlier in the season, he said: "I don’t think it’s ever one thing or it would be easy to fix. We’ve drawn games. When you don’t win, confidence can be affected because you’re not winning games as freely as you were, you’re not going into the game expecting to win the game as freely or individually you’re not at the same level of confidence.
"But it’s very fine margins. We could have scored in the first minute today, we had a couple of chances in the first couple of minutes of the game. If one of those goes in, the game is different.
"We had chances right until the last minute of the game, they defended en masse, they put their bodies on the line, they fought for a 0-0 and they got it.
"Those are the challenges ahead of us and we just need to keep fighting and get the first win and then make sure we keep the attitude consistent as it was tonight where I’ve got no complaints. Keep that attitude and look to fight for a result at a time.”
While Town’s progress is being held back by their draws, Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and now Bolton ahead of them are continuing to grind out wins.
"We just have to focus on ourselves,” the Blues manager continued. "We need to try and win the next game. We’re not in a position to be talking about winning runs or points totals because we’ve drawn too many games.
"We need to win the next game and fight to win the next game after that. And when we’ve done that more consistently, then we can think about what other teams are doing.”
Is pressure playing a part? "I think it’s natural that everyone wants it really badly within the club, everyone around the club, players, supporters, everyone’s working hard. The supporters are here en masse, they’ve contributed greatly over the season.
"The players are giving a lot behind the scenes and working hard as well. And, of course, everyone wants to be successful at the end of the season.
"When you’re in a run where you’re drawing too many games, confidence isn’t as high as it was earlier in the season, but the only way to earn that back is through hard work. Hard work when we go back to the training ground, hard work on Saturday, fight to come out on the right side of the margins and then that confidence can still be restored again.”
McKenna made four changes to his starting line-up, which he says was in part due to fitness but also looking to add fresh legs with the game Town’s fourth in 11 days.
"I think there are a few we didn’t have options on, to be honest, it’s a quick turnaround from Saturday, it’s a long travel,” he said.
"Nathan [Broadhead] wasn’t fit to start the game, he had cramp in both his hamstrings on Saturday and was still feeling tight, so medically he was limited in what he could do tonight. And, of course, we’re trying to rotate and freshen a little bit in the forward positions.
"The players are all fighting and they all want to stake a claim to start lots and lots of games and that’s the challenge for them individually as well.”
Town once again were found wanting against a side employing a low block, a recurring theme throughout the season but increasingly so lately.
Town once again were found wanting against a side employing a low block, a recurring theme throughout the season but increasingly so latterly.
"That’s the challenge at the moment,” McKenna said when asked how he might find the answer. "We were playing tonight against one of the most attacking and aggressive and open teams in the league, who usually score a lot and concede a lot and their manager [Joey Barton], credit to him to his honesty, has apologised to me straight after the game for not being willing to give us a match tonight and not being willing to play their normal way.
"Credit that he has the self-awareness and the honesty to say that. I can understand from their position but that doesn’t help us that that’s, I don’t know if you want to call it the level of respect because we haven’t won enough games, but that’s the approach that teams are taking against us a little bit more lately.
"I felt that that might be the case after the Morecambe game where a team came and played open against us and we punished them in the first half [by scoring four times].
"I think we faced a completely different Bristol Rovers side than in any game I’ve seen from them this season and that shows why the manager ground out a clean sheet.
"That’s the challenge that we face, we can’t hide from it, we need to face it, we need to keep working to find solutions individually, we need to keep working to find solution tactically.
"I thought tonight we tried a lot of different ways. We tried to go longer into the front, we tried to cross it, we tried to go into feet, we tried to go behind, we tried to go early and aggressive with our substitutes.
"We had 15 shots from inside the penalty box and 21 shots in total and we didn’t managed to find a goal.
"Tonight it wasn’t enough and we need to just keep working to find solutions, but it’s certainly a challenge.”
McKenna admits that four wins in 15 in the league isn’t good enough: "No, there’s no getting away from that. We know that, it’s too many draws primarily. We haven’t lost many games. You can lose games but it’s too many draws.
"I think in isolation, a draw, 0-0 away from home on a Tuesday night when a team sets up like that against you and then have threats and goalscorers on the counter-attack and threats of goalscorers to come on, a draw isn’t a disaster.
"But in an accumulation of other draws where we really, really were disappointed not to get the points, things didn’t go our way in different circumstances and decisions didn’t go our way, then the accumulation makes it a really disappointing run.
"But these things can change. We’ve shown in the first half of the season that we can accumulate a lot of points. We showed in my time last year that we can accumulate points and put a run together.
"That’s not happening at the moment, but I still feel that we’re not far away from it. I feel like in general the performances and attitude haven’t been far away. I don’t think we were far away tonight, but, of course, the supporters don’t want to hear that at the moment because there’s frustration there. I understand that.
"From our point of view, we need to keep working, we need to keep working to find solutions, we need to keep the players’ confidence up because it’s not easy for them at the moment either.
"They desperately want to be successful as well and we need to stay strong and keep the confidence and the belief high enough to give us a good chance to win the next game and just build on that.”
Some of those fans are losing faith that Town can make the top two, but McKenna says that’s not something he’s personally reflecting on at present.
"We can’t control that,” he said. "My thoughts aren’t on that at the moment. We haven’t got the right to think or discuss that too much at the moment, in my opinion, because we’ve drawn too many games.
"We need to focus on getting the next win and if and when we get the win, we need to focus on getting the next one and we need to put some results together and then after that, we can talk and think about where we are. But for now, my focus can’t be anywhere past Saturday.”
He added: "I’m not thinking about [the table] at all, to be honest. That’s not shying away from our position, that’s being honest about when you haven’t won enough games like we haven’t.
"We can’t think about points totals, up, down, promotion or play-offs, we just need to fight to earn some results at the moment and if we can manage to do that, then we can look and assess where we’re at and what we need to do. But at the moment, it’s just needs to be the next game at a time.”
McKenna says George Edmundson and Massimo Luongo could be back in his squad for Saturday’s game against Forest Green Rovers, but that Lee Evans will remain absent with his knee injury.
""Maybe George and Mass, possibly,” he said. "They weren’t ready for today, but we’re hoping that both will join in training on Thursday.
"Lee Evans no, but we’re hoping that the other two might be available for Saturday. Noting confirmed yet on Lee, to be honest, he’s seeing the specialist this week, I’m not sure exactly what day, so I should be able to update on Friday.”