But the opposite can be dangerous too, and that is what Huddersfield Town's Tom Lees is wary of.

The Terriers go into Saturday's game against Millwall bottom of the Championship. The best they can hope for is that wins for them and Sheffield United move them up a place but they will still be in the relegation zone come training on Monday.

As their coach Mark Fotheringham – the second of the season after Danny Schofield was sacked nine matches in – is keen to stress, there are still 93 points to play for and 38 more should keep them in the division next season.

For all the lofty ambitions some might understandably have had abut kicking on after last season's play-off final, from where they are now, survival can be the only goal. Fotheringham and new managing director Dave Baldwin have bluntly pointed out as much in recent days.

But mathematical equations, no matter how reassuring, rarely trump psychology with footballers.

This oddest of English seasons will be shaped by the four weeks when the Championships goes into mothballs as the likes of Sorba Thomas and hopefully Poland's Michal Helik go off to play at the World Cup in Qatar.

Who sits where after Huddersfield v Swansea City on November 12 will have a big bearing on teams' self belief, chairmen's impatience, managers' and coaches' job prospects. So centre-back Lees wants the Terriers out of the bottom three by then.

"There's a long way to go in the season but I think you can kid yourself a bit in that respect because if you start to drop off teams in the table every game becomes more and more pressure, almost like cup finals every week," warns the ex-Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday defender. “It's important we start to claw our way back up, get off the foot of the table, get above a few teams. That's got to be the first goal.

"It's vital to just get moving up the table and get points on the board because the longer we're bottom, the more pressure builds. It's important everybody realises the situation."

With five games until then, being able to enjoy the World Cup from above the dotted line is Lees's main aim. It will not be easy, with Coventry City resurgent now they are finally catching up fixtures after the fiasco of their churned-up pitch, and the teams sandwiching them, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion, under new management this week.

"We've got a lot of games in the next two weeks," says Lees. "To go into that break out of there and back in the pack would be really good, it would give everybody a boost.

"That's something we've got to set as our short-term target."

In their favour – possibly – is that three of the next five are at home.

"We've got to use it to our advantage," says Lees. "I think it's our responsibility to create that atmosphere, that feeling at the ground. We know from last season what it can create. We've got to get some positivity behind us."

The route to that positivity could be a bit of negativity.

Fotheringham is like almost every new manager/coach who inherits a struggling side in that his concentration has been on locking things down at the back and keeping clean sheets. They claimed one at home to Hull City and one in the last match, at Middlesbrough.

"I feel when you're strong in that department we will definitely give ourselves a better chance of winning games,” he argues. “The players are more than capable of doing that, they've shown it in training and phases of games."

Obviously he is preaching to the converted in the case of a proper defender like Lees.

"It is important. I don't think (last week's) was a great game and I think it was one that should have got us three points,” says Lees.

"Losing the game would have been a disaster so we'll take the point and move forward with it."

Keeping clean sheets was one of Huddersfield's strong points last season but it has just not happened enough since.

"It's a mixture of things, really," explains Lees. "Being solid and not making individual errors and just performing well as individuals as a team, we've not done that enough. If you don't keep the ball out of the net it's going to create nervousness.

"We've got to take confidence from the fact Boro scored four against Wigan (in their previous game) and we kept them out."

But the best thing for confidence would be having to raise their gaze a bit next time they pick up a league table.

Tom Lees warns Huddersfield Town they need to get a move on as they remain mired at the bottom of the Championship