PROUD chairman Dean Hoyle today vowed to learn the harsh lessons from Town’s £5m Championship survival scrap and pledged to back a summer of vital squad strengthening.

Hoyle watched nervously as goals from Jermaine Beckford and James Vaughan earned the 2-2 draw against Barnsley which kept Town up in 19th position and completed objective No1 for new manager Mark Robins.

Now Hoyle, chief executive Nigel Clibbens and head of football operations Ross Wilson, will work with Robins to try and bring in a number of player targets, including Norwich loan striker Vaughan, before the 2013-14 campaign kicks off on August 3.

“We’re delighted to have stabilised and stayed in the Championship and now we can move on,” said Hoyle, who praised both sets of fans in a season-best crowd of 21,614.

“All we have talked about for the last two months is next season and what we need to do, but we couldn’t press the button until we knew which division we would be in.

“Now we can build and I’ll back the manager as far as I can. We’ve learned some harsh lessons and we know what it’s about, but now we can try to put some things in place and push forward.

“Going into Saturday’s game we could have been relegated, but we delivered, we stayed up and we finished 10 points off the play-offs, so anything is possible.”

It’s unlikely Town will bring back loan men Beckford or Neil Danns from Leicester because of their high wages, but Hoyle hopes to stave off competition from Derby and build on initial talks with Norwich to capture 14-goal Vaughan.

“In the Championship we can attract the right kind of players and Mark Robins has his targets set,” added Hoyle.

“He has not been in a position to change too much so far, but he’s had 15 games to get to know the squad, he knows what’s required and he’s excited about what’s in store.

“Staying up means we can probably retain most of our players while had we gone down, players would inevitably have had to leave – that’s life – but now we can start planning forwards instead of looking over our shoulders.”

Vaughan – last night named Town’s Player the Year – is keeping an open mind on his future. The 24-year-old said: “Staying up is massive for the club and scoring that goal was one of the best feelings of my life.”