Club captain Danny Grainger is now our longest serving player following the recent departure of keeper Mark Gillespie and we spoke to him this week off the back of another good season which saw him notch nine goals in 41 appearances.
Grainger, 30, joined the club in the summer of 2014 and has scored 19 goals in his 128 appearances for the Blues overall.
“I don’t think there’s much to say about the ending to last season other than we were all gutted,” he said. “The lads were heartbroken and devastated, you could see that at the end of the game at Exeter.
"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb again but we were delighted to get back into it. We just couldn’t finish it off this time, which was devastating."
“When you look at the season as a whole it was a total rollercoaster," he admitted. "It’s progression again from the year before, which is what we’ve looked to continue to do.
"It shows we’re on the right tracks and we want to go one step further next year. We were gutted at the end of last season but we want to make sure we use that to make sure we push on again next year."
“There were a lot of positives to take from it even though it didn’t end the way we wanted it to," he continued. "Some of the records we broke and the start we had to the season were fantastic.
"Personally I could never have imagined equalling the consecutive scoring record. It’s still crazy when I think about it now. I was buzzing when I did it and I was gutted that Jabo [Ibehre] couldn’t do it as well towards the end of the season. I was delighted with it but I would have swapped all of it for a promotion at Wembley.
“We lost key players to injuries at important times which probably dampened our momentum, and it did hamper us as we went into the second half of the season."
“We’ve set a real marker down as we look towards next season," he insisted. "There is no second best now. Next year is promotion, I’m more than confident of that. I’m sure the manager will bring in some good players so I’m more than confident that we can get promoted next year.
“Although the end to last season was disappointing the messages Ive had from the fans since have been really positive. There are a lot of 'what ifs' but unfortunately we just couldn’t quite push it across the line for everyone.
“The fans were fantastic with us all season and all we can do is say thank you to them for their support. They really pushed us on, especially in the likes of the Hartlepool home game and the Exeter play-off games. They’ve really pulled us through, we’re very thankful and we just want them to keep backing us next year.”