Queens Park Rangers assistant manager Kevin Bond has insisted that automatic promotion was "nigh on impossible" even before the club's 2-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers.
Goals at the start of each half condemned the Loftus Road outfit to their ninth away loss of the campaign, and Bond has revealed that the team's aim is to gain momentum for the playoffs in their final five fixtures.
The 56-year-old is quoted by BBC Sport as saying: "I think that we probably thought that automatic promotion was going to be nigh on impossible for us before tonight.
"Obviously we just want to go into the latter part of the season in as good form as we can and try to get a bit of momentum.
"Everyone knows how important it is in the most important part of the season, and hopefully that will culminate in a playoff spot."
QPR sit nine points clear of seventh place in the standings.