DANNY Rose believes a strong finish to the season can give Swindon Town a head-start on their League Two rivals for next term – if their play-off dream fails to materialise come May 4.

Town have only three games left in the 2018-19 campaign, starting at home to Crewe Alexandra today.

Richie Wellens’ side travel to nearby Cheltenham Town on April 27 before finishing the season at home to Notts County seven days later.

Swindon are four points adrift of the play-off places – a position not been helped by four draws in a row.

However, Town’s current unbeaten run stands at seven games, and Rose thinks extending it all the way to the end of the campaign can create a feel-good factor at the club – even if they still miss out on promotion.

“We still have personal pride at stake. We don’t want to be letting the season peter out and end in a disappointing way,” said Rose.

“Certainly, with wins, that momentum can roll into next season. I’ve experienced that before, so we have to do the right things.

“There’s still an outside chance of the play-offs if we concentrate on ourselves and we do our business and pick up nine points in the remaining three games.

“We’ve got two home games remaining and if you can create a feel-good factor, despite it being only two home games, it can certainly leave a taste of optimism within the group and around the fans and the town.

“That’s what we’ll be trying to do on Monday, trying to generate that optimism.”

Town boss Wellens has stated that his side have lacked ruthlessness at both ends of the pitch during their recent run of draws.

Although they were able to correct that at one end of the pitch with a good clean sheet at Cambridge United on Good Friday, Rose now hopes for better from an attacking viewpoint if Swindon are to improve on the previous 0-0 draw at the Abbey Stadium when they face Crewe.

“A more ruthless showing is what we’ll be hoping for – certainly, in terms of goals and creating chances,” said Rose.

“We managed to keep the back door closed on Friday, so hopefully we can create some chances and take them when they present themselves.

“We’ve not done that often enough over the last month or so. If we would have, we’d be in a much better position.

“We are still in with an outside chance and we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure we do our jobs right.”