STEREOTYPICALLY teams who go in to the play-offs having just missed out on automatic promotion are normally quite down and despondent – but that is certainly not the case here.

We’re certainly not on a downer because we actually did well to get back to within a point of the top three.

After losing to Aldershot, Bristol Rovers and then at Bradford as well we appeared to have no chance of catching the teams above us.

But we’ve been on a great run and we’re now taking that in to the play-offs.

We’ve won four of our last five games and have kept five clean sheets in a row and we ended with 83 points which is some going so we have upward momentum which we want to continue.

We all spoke about that at the training ground on Monday and any disappointment there might have been in the squad went after that discussion.

There has been a positive feeling around the place ever since but we all know that Crewe have also been doing well and that we are in for two difficult games against them.

Their manager, Steve Davis, has done a fantastic job since going in there and they haven’t lost since we beat them in February.

That means they’re 16 games without defeat and you do normally find in the play-offs that the team who sneaks through the back door are normally the most dangerous to play so we’re fully aware of that.

We’ve tried to keep everything the same in terms of preparation this week but the wet weather has made that quite difficult at times.

We also have a later kick off to think about and deal with so we have to make sure the players are eating at the right times and are peaking for the game.

As well as that, we have to make sure we’re still in the tie for the second leg at Roots Hall and that means we have to keep things tight and be organised too.

That’s not to say we’re going there to just defend because that would be dangerous and wouldn’t work but it is important we’re hard to break down.

I’m sure the supporters will be right behind us like they have been all season and we’re really going to need them in both of the fixtures.

But whatever happens in the game I think it’s important to remember that we’ve made tremendous progress this season.

If we go on to get promotion then we’d obviously bedelighted but if we don’t then it will still have been a good year and we will still have made massive strides forward.

I’m hoping the experience in our side can help us though and we have players like Neil Harris and Chris Barker who have been through the play offs before.

For me it will be the second time I’ve been involved in them after winning promotion with Sheffield Wednesday back in 2005.

We beat Brentford in the semi-finals home and away and then saw off Hartlepool in the final but it was a hell of a game.

There were 41,000 Wednesday fans there but we were actually losing with nine minutes to go before we fought back and won 4-2 in extra time.

It was a great day and I’m glad to see Wednesday have won promotion again this year.

Two of my other former sides – Southampton and Swindon Town have also gone up – and now I want to do all I can to make sure my current team also get promotion.