Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd has challenged his players to finish the season on 70 points, a tally which in the previous three seasons has been enough to finish in the top six.
It is certainly a very tall order, possibly even a mission impossible, but the challenge is to motivate his players to finish as high as possible in the Npower Championship league table.
“The lads are very upbeat after getting what was a really good point for us against a good team on Saturday,” said Boothroyd.
“As a group of players and staff, we definitely feel that we are going in the right direction and we want to finish the season on a high and make sure that we keep the season alive all the way to the end.
“There are a lot of games coming up and it is important that we get on a run. When you get the Saturday-Tuesday games you want to build a bit of momentum. We have got five games in two weeks and we have got to work as hard as we can to get as many points as we can, and that’s always going to be the aim."
Coventry City are on 40 points and have thirteen games left to play this season. There are 39 points on offer and for the Sky Blues to finish with 70 points, they will need to drop no more than nine points in those 13 games.
Boothroyd explained, “We have got 40 points at the moment and we want to work hard to get to 50 first, then to 60 and who knows, perhaps even 70, that would be nice wouldn't’ it!”
Last season Blackpool finished in sixth place with 70 points, winning promotion through the play-offs. They lost lost 14 games in that season. When Boothroyd was managing Watford in 2008, he got them to the play-offs with 70 points, but failed to win promotion.
So far this season Coventry City have lost 15 games and in the last nine years no team has finished in a play off position with more than 14 losses. So for Boothroyd aiming for 70 point and a possible top six finish is close to impossible, but he hasn't conceded defeat just yet.
“We have got to build on the positive performances of the last three games," explained Boothroyd.
"We have got a group of people who are working as hard as they can to get a result every single time they play and when you have got that you have always got half a chance.”