Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Gary Breen is adamant the club will finish in the top six of the Coca-Cola Championship despite their recent run of indifferent form.
Mick McCarthy's men have won just two of their last eight games and have slipped into mid-table, five points shy of the play-off spots.
The latest setback came on Tuesday night when they took the lead at Preston North End but succumbed to two second half goals, the first a debatable penalty, to lose 2-1.
With in-form Burnley to go to on Saturday, Breen knows his side must dig deep if they are to make the end-of-season party and return to the Premier League.
"We can still make the play-offs, no doubt about it," the central defender said. "All this about hoping to make the play-offs, that's rubbish.
"We will make the play-offs, we'll get there. That's the mindset we should be in and I'm sure we will be. There are still ten games left and so many points to play for."
Wolves should have taken something from Deepdale. Having dominated the early stages of the game and gone ahead through Andy Keogh, they allowed Simon Whaley to score the winner with nine minutes remaining.
That followed the controversial ruling by referee Jon Moss who adjudged Jody Craddock had tripped Chris Brown and gave Callum Davidson the chance to level the scores.
"We looked in control until the penalty," Breen said. "The second goal was particularly disappointing because to allow their player to ghost in and have a free shot on goal is not good enough.
"I think we've let ourselves down and our manager and our supporters who keep coming and travelling to watch us. I said earlier in the season that, because we're a generally young and inexperienced team, that there were going to be ups and downs but we'd have hoped that those lessons would have been learned at this stage of the season.
"It's really disappointing and I feel for our supporters who went up there in their numbers and were fantastic. I know I keep saying it but it needs saying because we are not great to watch at the moment."
