Steven Schumacher says Wanderers won’t dwell on just a second home league loss of the season as they set their sights on a play-off clash with Bradford City.
A 3-2 defeat to Luton Town saw the Whites finish fifth in League One to set up the double-header against the Bantams with the first leg at the Toughsheet Community Stadium next Saturday night.
Wanderers had chances to end Luton’s play-off hopes after leading 2-1 with goals from Jordi Osei-Tutu and Ibby Cissoko but instead it was a late Stevenage goal that knocked the Hatters out of the top six as Schumacher’s men gear up for their promotion push.
“I’m disappointed to lose the game in that manner,” said the Wanderers’ boss after an injury-time goal gave Luton a 3-2 win. “We've scored loads of late goals ourselves to get winners and equalisers but today we have to take that one on the chin.
“It was an open game, as we expected, and both teams had chances. We're disappointed not to take the ones that we did and the goals that we conceded were soft.
“The game should have been killed off and dead but how many times have I said that this year? That's why we've finished in the play-offs. Nevertheless, we draw a line under that now. We know what the goal is and we've just got to go all systems go and focus on that.”
Wanderers will face Bradford just a fortnight after a second draw between the sides this season (along with a Vertu Trophy win for the Whites), with the second leg at Valley Parade to be played on Thursday, 14th May (KO 8pm). The winners will go to Wembley to take on Stevenage or Stockport County with promotion the prize.
“We've got three games to get ourselves to the Championship, so over to us,” Schumacher added. “We've had three games against Bradford this year that were all close, all good games, so I'm sure it'll be no different next week.
“We'll get back in on Monday and probably won't speak too much about this game because there's no point. We focus on the next three and we've got to get our preparation right for Bradford.
“We’ve got to play them at home now on the first leg and then see if we can win that.”