Gloucester flanker Matt Cox believes the Cherry and Whites will clinch a Premiership play-off berth this season.
Cox admitted that Gloucester would drift in and out of matches last season, a habit which led to them finishing ninth on the table.
But the former Worcester player believes a new-found concentration span under rugby director Nigel Davies's guidance will guide them to the semi-finals.
"At times last year we would have a quiet or sloppy 20 minutes and that would prove costly," Cox told the Gloucester Citizen.
"This year we stay pretty consistent across the course, and I'd like to think we can stay in the top four now.
"It is frustrating and disheartening at points not to come away with a result.
"But we're still in good spirits because of the fact we can battle with teams right until the end, and we need to take that forward now.
"The odd mistake, the odd penalty, that's what brought Leicester back into the game.
"And mistakes are always costly, especially at a place like Welford Road.
"The boys were still there fighting until the 80th minute, and that's going to be important as things pan out.
"One or two little mistakes and they punish you for it.
"We can dog and compete with anyone in this league now.
"We're not that far away, a bit of fine-tuning, and we're a team to be looking at."
Despite losing 17-12 to Leicester last weekend, Cox believes the Kingsholm-based outfit, who are currently fourth in the standings, will return to their winning ways when they host London Irish on Saturday.
An area of concern for Gloucester, in that loss to the Tigers, is there scrummaging but Cox is convinced they can turn things around against the Exiles.
"We did well to dig in there, and towards the back-end of the game (against Leicester) even the scrum started to turn in our favour.
"They literally threw the kitchen sink at us in the first half, but we turned around in the lead and that was a great credit to us.
"If we'd had one or two more minutes on the clock I think the game would have been there for the taking.
"We're not a million miles away, a few more things and hopefully we'll come out with different results from games like that."
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