Wes Burns has admitted Ipswich Town’s season is as good as over.

The Blues’ 1-0 home loss to Cambridge means Kieran McKenna’s men sit six points off the final League One play-off place with only five games remaining, at a time when all of the teams around them have at least a game in hand.

Town have known for several weeks that something close to perfection would be needed if they were to crash the top six in the final weeks of the campaign, with Burns conceding their loss to the U’s means their promotion dream is almost certainly over.

“We spoke about it in the dressing room and said the season is probably at its end now,” the Welshman said.

“We’ve got five games to go and it’s going to be tough to grab sixth spot now with the dropped points, but we have to finish the season well and on a high to take momentum into next season.

“We’re gutted we didn’t win and gutted for the fans that we’re probably going to have to wait for next season to celebrate. We’re frustrated, gutted and sad.

“We’ve lost 11 games this season and you can’t lose that many if you want to be going for promotion, so we need to rebuild and hope 11 losses isn’t us next season.

“Our form has been really good since the boss came in. If we’d had that since the start of the season then we’d be in there for automatic promotion.

“Everyone can see the feelgood factor around the club and we can feel it building and see how the team can be for next year. It’s a positive time to be part of Ipswich Town and next season we’ll come back stronger again.

“Hopefully with five games to go next season we’ve already lifted the trophy.”

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Frustration filled in the air at Portman Road on an afternoon where Dominic Thompson’s second-half own goal proved to be the difference between the sides.

“We weren’t at our best in the first half and were sloppy in possession early on, but once we got to grips with that the first half kind of passed us by,” Burns said.

“We had good spells of possession where we created the chance for Sam (Morsy) but we weren’t at our greatest. I thought we were a bit better in the second half but we weren’t at our best.

“You can’t be at your best in every game. That’s not possible.

“It’s frustration all round really. It was clear from the start of the game they (Cambridge) came here to waste time and put 11 players behind the ball and try to ruffle our feathers.

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“They succeeded with that so their plan worked perfectly. Teams are coming here to get a 0-0 or draw the game, so when teams are successful with that it can be frustrating.

“The longer the game goes on the more they grow into it and the more confidence they get. We weren’t quite good enough today.

“It’s happening quite often for us, which is in some ways a positive because teams are giving us the respect we deserve in terms of the football we play and how we look to break teams down.

“Today was a day when we weren’t bang on it and we didn’t create the clear-cut chance to score a goal.”