PAUL RACHUBKA believes it's time for Town to prove they are worth a promotion place.

The snipers have been out recently despite Town occupying a top-six place for the past seven months.

And the verbal crossfire from critics became even more intense when Town failed to move second in midweek when losing 2-1 at home to Chesterfield.

It was Town's first Galpharm reversal in 2006 and it hurt. Badly.

Rachubka suffered like the rest, but he's developed a steely focus in his time with Manchester United and Charlton and won't be distracted from the ultimate target - clean sheets for himself and a second promotion in three seasons for Peter Jackson's side.

"We are professionals and we have to respond in the right way to the disappointment of the other night," said Rachubka, who has played three games for back-injury victim Phil Senior.

"There is no choice other than to pick ourselves up and, in these final three matches, we have to prove to our opposition that we are worth being where we are in the table.

"There were 13,000 people here the other night and we deserved to be booed off for losing 2-1 after playing so well in the first half.

"The remaining three games are all massive and we need to be taking nine points if possible to make sure of the play-offs, let alone challenging for automatic promotion.

"If we don't make the play-offs then it will obviously be a very, very disappointing season - but that's not how we are looking at it.

"We are looking forward knowing we are capable of coming up with three wins and, if results go in our favour elsewhere, you never know what might happen."

Rachubka has been stung by being left out of the first-team line-up for nine successive matches.

It would have been more had Senior not suffered his injury in the warm-up at Gillingham, but now he's back between the sticks, the 24-year-old is in determined mood.

"I'm desperate to prove what I've got to give and it's disappointing we haven't got the results we've wanted," he said.

"I got to know I would be playing only five minutes before the Gillingham game and, despite us conceding the early goal, I thought we played well in the first half.

"I think the fact I hadn't done the full warm-up because I was helping Phil get prepared caught up with me in the second half, especially with my kicking when we were playing into the wind.

"I was rushing things and trying to play too quickly, so I've done a lot of work on that and tried to focus on trying to hit a more consistent ball.

"In the last two games I think it's worked and I'll keep on concentrating on my kicking because it is one of my assets.

"We were able to catch Chesterfield a couple of times from my quick clearances the other night and I'm still disappointed I produced such a poor kicking display down at Gillingham in the second half."

While Rachubka is happy to admit to his own mistakes and to work hard on putting them right, he confesses it's not always straightforward to explain some of the goals Town concede.

"I always look as a goalkeeper, every time I concede a goal, and wonder what I could have done better to try and stop it," he explained.

"It's really hard to take sometimes because, in one way, you think I could have saved it and could have done better.

"But then, if you do that, you are cheating a little bit and it's a hard position to cope with mentally.

"Sometimes it's not your fault, but you want to keep clean sheets because that's what keeps you in the team - as Phil proved when he kept those three on the trot.

"I always try and let my defenders know how important the clean sheet is and it's vital for the whole team because it gives us a platform and we can go on from there.

"The gaffer has said that all season that we haven't kept enough clean sheets, which is maybe why we are slipping off the pace and are not right up there.

"Looking at the programme notes and Southend have got the best goalkeeping ratio and also the best striking ratio, which is obviously why they are up at the top.

"It says a lot, though, if you can prevent the opposition from scoring."

Rachubka knows he is in a battle with Senior for the first-team shirt - young Simon Eastwood is also adding further pressure from the Academy - and he says everyone who appears on the bench at the moment is just desperate to secure a slot in the starting line-up.

"There's a lot of competition and, hopefully, it will help to spur us on," he said.

"I think the other night just illustrated how much goals change matches at this level.

"We haven't been punishing teams enough and finishing them off, which has given them the chance to come back at us.

"Tuesday was a classic example and, credit to Chesterfield, they made us pay for being sloppy.

"Their first goal was a bit lucky because the lad scuffed the shot but it fell nicely for him again, otherwise I would have blocked the shot.

"Then the second was one of those where you either get the offside or you don't and it resulted in us going long ball a bit too much instead of carrying on passing it.

"In the first half I thought we were great, got a super goal and, if we had got another, it would have been game over for sure.

"Chesterfield got their tactics right, though, stopped us playing our normal game and it's important in these final games that we give full 90 minutes to the extent where we get wins out of them."