Alex Tettey says Norwich City need to keep playing with as much determination as they can muster up, as they enter the final five games of the season against Watford on Tuesday (6pm KO).
As they visit Vicarage Road, the Canaries sit seven points adrift of safety in the Premier League.
With very little time anticipated to be between the end of this season and the start of the next, Tettey believes that wins are necessary for going into the next campaign with as much confidence as possible, regardless of position in the league.
“Regardless of how it will finish we need to try and get some wins; you never know whether you win games enough or not," he said.
“We just have to take it into the next season, because if you don’t win games from now and go into the next season, the confidence will be so low it’ll take time to get it back. If we keep winning games and start next season, the confidence will be sky-high.
“It was a challenge before, but now it feels like an even bigger challenge. Miracles happen in football, so you can always achieve it if you keep going and things go your way.
“You can always achieve something, it’s still possible, it’s just harder than it was three or four games ago.”
After losing out on any points in a 1-0 defeat to Brighton on Saturday, Tettey said the last five games are going to be a huge mental challenge for the team.
“It’ll take a lot psychologically for the rest of the five games, if you don’t win your head is down, for example myself, I felt mentally broken after the Brighton game.
“It’s tough, because when you put in a lot of effort into preparation and getting ourselves in the right frame to play these games, which are very hard because it’s not like we’re mid-table, it’s a huge game.
“You feel like you can’t make a mistake, you need to play a perfect game for 90 minutes. It is tough but we need to keep pushing, one win here will get the confidence up again and the team will start being the team we want to be.”
Looking ahead to Watford, the City midfielder says this game will be a huge decider in how the remainder of the season plays out, with every point crucial to both teams.
“I think even in the beginning they were in a much worse position than we were, then they managed to pick it up and we were going back and forth. It’s a team of very good players, strong characters with experience.
“I feel like if we’re on our best we can beat that team. It’ll decide a lot, if we manage to win and put ourselves back in it, or if they win and they move away from relegation. It’s going to be a very important game.”
