Joe Deeney called on his players to ‘remember the feeling’ following the dramatic late defeat to Stockport County and to use it to fuel their fight in the final against AFC Wimbledon in late April

Goals from Ty Lesser and Rufus Barnes proved insufficient to get Town through to another PDL final after making the 18s version of the tournament following the 4-2 victory over Swansea City.

Speaking immediately after the final whistle in the 3-2 defeat, Deeney praised his side for their determination, stating: “I cannot fault them for their attitude and their application because we lost our top scorer early on and from that moment, we were up against it.

“In the end, it was such a scrappy game, it was backwards and forwards and, in the end, it’s a gut punch to take. I’ve said to the lads we can’t stand here and analyse it now because we have a cup final in the 18s to look forward to.”

Explaining how difficult it was to take, Deeney expressed the nature of the defeat and also spoke about the need to go again for the young Hatters, saying: “It’s literally the last kick of the game. The referee has blown the whistle as it has gone in. You play against big sides and I said to them yesterday that we’ve been a bit aggressive lately to address the light-hearted way we’ve gone about set pieces, they’re one of the biggest factors in any football match and that’s what got us in the end.

“At any level of the game, you cannot afford to be conceding twos or threes every game, especially for people like me and Ronnie (Henry) being defenders, it is tough to take.”

“We’re resilient though, we’ll come back and we’ve got to focus on what to do better. It’s a young group and they’ll be better for it next year, I have no doubt about that.”

Words: Liam Wilmot