Mark Kennedy believes that Cardiff City can emulate former club Wolverhampton Wanderers in reaching the Premier League at the second attempt.The Republic of Ireland midfielder was at Molineux under current Cardiff boss Dave Jones when Wolves went up in 2003.
That had followed disappointment the previous year, just like the play-off bound Bluebirds fell short last season.
"I remember speaking to the manager at the end of last season and talking about Wolves," Kennedy said.
"We were saying 'look, hopefully what happened to Wolves can happen here'.
"Last year we didn't make the play-offs and I felt from my previous experience when we were at Wolves, in my first year we were 11 points clear in third with eight games left and we didn't go up.
"The next year we did go up and I felt because of that experience it certainly helped."
Last year Cardiff fell out of the Championship play-off places on the last day of the regular season, a 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday seeing them lose out by one goal's difference to Preston.
"Hopefully the lads will learn from that and appreciate what we could have had, where we went wrong, and move on and gain something from that," added Kennedy, speaking to BBC Radio Wales' The Back Page programme.
This year Cardiff finished the regular season - a 2-0 loss at Derby County that meant little - with the luxury of knowing they had already booked a play-off place.
The Bluebirds face Leicester City at the Walkers Stadium in the first leg of their play-off on Sunday, with the second leg three days later at the Cardiff City Stadium.
If they out-fox the Foxes, Cardiff will then play either Nottingham Forest or Blackpool in the play-off final, with a place in the Premier League up for grabs.
It is not just the situation the Bluebirds find themselves in, or having the same man in charge that resonates with Kennedy looking back on his Wolves experience.
It is also to do with the make-up of the squad around him, with a mixture of experienced pros and young talent - players such as Joe Ledley, Adam Matthews, Aaron Wildig and Darcy Blake.
"One thing we had in our team were big-game players, people like Nathan Blake, Joleon Lescott, Matt Murray was in goal and he was outstanding that year, Kenny Miller was on fire, Paul Ince was there," Kennedy said.
"I don't think we started off fantastically but from Christmas on we only lost one game - against Brighton, believe it or not, they were bottom of the league.
"We had a fantastic cup run... and kicked on from there, finished sixth, beat Reading in the semis which was a big win, and then Sheffield United.
"It was fantastic, it happened so quick, we got in the backdoor that year.
"We beat Sheffield United but since then they've been up. I imagine they learned from that and they went up with the same manager."
If it comes down to the crunch, Kennedy is sure that the managership of Jones will once again serve them well, just as it did for Wolves.
"Fair play to the gaffer, he gave us a couple of pep-talks [during Wolves' promotion year] which really spurred us on as well - which will remain in the dressing-room! - but he said a couple of things that gave us a kick up the backside," Kennedy said.
"He actually deserves a lot of credit for that because I'll never forget that."
*Listen to The Back Page on Saturday mornings on BBC Radio Wales, 0830-0900 BST.
Source: BBC Sport
Source: BBC Sport