New faces are needed to bolster Wycombe Wanderers’ promotion push, according to manager Gareth Ainsworth after he stated for the first time that he aims to take the club out of League Two this season.

The Blues boss and chairman Andrew Howard have previously been unwavering in their insistence that their only target for the season was to reach 55 points – despite the team occupying an automatic promotion spot for the majority of the campaign.

And now, with the Chairboys having racked up a point more than their pre-season target, Ainsworth has beaten the promotion drum for the first time, stating that his Wanderers team are “genuine promotion contenders”.

He said: “After 31 games we’ve averaged out at being one of the top three teams in the league, so there’s no reason why we can’t do that after 46.

“There’s a couple of players missing and a couple of players have left us, we’ve gained a couple and I think if we can add one or two more we’ve got a real good chance of promotion.

“We have two chances but we’re looking at the first option of automatic because we’ve been there for so long this season we want to push and really go for it.”

The statement of intent from the 41-year-old comes after two home defeats – to Plymouth and Newport County – which have dropped Blues five points off the top.

A lack of goals is Ainsworth’s immediate concern, and the manager admits he’s working hard to get players through the door that can re-ignite a team which has scored just twice in the last five games.

“We need goals,” he said. “I think the worst statistician in the world would realise that we’ve lacked goals in the last four, five, six games.”

He added: “I’m actively looking at ways to strengthen the squad, I always am but even more so now. The last two weeks has shown how stretched we are and hopefully we can add to the squad.

“There are a lot of hurdles to get over in regards to brining players in. There’s some bigger clubs in our league than us, financially and stature wise, and they seem to get the players before us.”

Saturday’s defeat to Newport followed last Tuesday’s 2-0 loss against Plymouth and amounted to Wanderers’ first back-to-back defeats of the season.

Only Manchester City can match Blues’ record of one away league defeat all season in the top four tiers of English football, and Ainsworth is hoping to find solace on their travels against Carlisle tomorrow.

Reflecting on the club’s recent home form he said: “It’s horrible. It’s tough at home; it’s a place where we’ve struggled during my tenure, we always seem to be better away from home and we’re trying to address little factors that we think affect that.

“We’ve done really well this year at home, apart from the last two games, and I’m sure that we can get back on track with promotion now in our sights.

“We want to go for it, we want to give it a real go, and nobody expected us to be up here at this time of the year so why not have a real crack at promotion without any pressure on us.”