A BITTERLY disappointed Michael Appleton felt Oxford United’s Checkatrade Trophy final defeat showed they remain a work in progress.

Relegation-bound Coventry City were the underdogs, but handled the Wembley occasion far better to run out 2-1 winners.

Appleton struggled to explain why his side could not match the Sky Blues’ desire, but felt it was the same issue which had stopped United from making a stronger challenge for the play-offs in Sky Bet League One.

He said: “We’ve had a few occasions this season where we’ve got ourselves into positions where we’ve had an opportunity to kick on (and then not taken it).

“This reminds me of that.

“It’s almost as if it’s a game too much for them and then you’ve got to go again.

“I’m sure they’ll pick themselves up on Wednesday against Fleetwood in the league.

“Hopefully we can surprise a few people by winning the game and then people will be thinking we’ve got an outside chance of the play-offs.

“My question will keep coming back to those big moments in big games and whether we can do more positive things than negative. That is yet to be seen with the group.”

Appleton was extremely frustrated to see the goals his side conceded contrasted with Coventry’s rearguard action.

It was illustrated by the double block by Lee Burge and Gael Bigirimana in the 94th minute, which denied United a goal which would have taken the final into extra-time.

He said: “When you need to win finals, that’s the type of desire you need.

“They had it in abundance because there were a couple of things earlier in the game where they were putting their bodies on the line and making sure they were hard to beat.

“The game was decided in both boxes.

“I thought Coventry had a hunger and desire to probably keep the ball out of their net more than we did.

“There’s more than one way of winning a game. It’s not just about when the ball’s at your feet, you have still got to do the other side of it.

“The second goal from my point of view was the frustrating one – firstly to concede in the way we did but more the reaction after it for about ten minutes.

“Normally we deal with disappointment, whether it’s in games or after them, pretty well and clear our heads quickly and I thought it took too long.

“There weren’t enough of our defensive-minded players who were on the front foot and able to read situations.”

After last season’s defeat in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final, the U’s boss urged his players to use it as motivation to ensure they did not return to Wembley in the play-offs by winning automatic promotion from League Two.

This time the post-match mantra was similar – channel the disappointment for a late charge in the run-in for a top-six spot.

He said: “There’s no doubt it’s a tall order.

“There’s six games to go and we’ll probably need to win at least five and that might still not be enough.

“I did say to them 12 months ago make sure we don’t come back here because we were in a pretty strong position in the league.

“We wanted to make sure we finished the job off and not get caught up in having to play in the play-offs.

“The message now is a bit different – we are one of the chasers. There is still hope.”