Barnsley Assistant Head Coach Andreas Winkler says his side need to bounce back from their defeat to Blackpool on Tuesday evening.
The Reds face AFC Wimbledon at Oakwell on Saturday, but were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at Bloomfield Road after the hosts’ second half comeback.
George Moncur’s sublime first half volley had given the Reds a deserved early lead before the Tangerines hit back through Michael Nottingham, Harry Pritchard and Armand Gnanduillet.
“We had a pretty good start, I think we could have scored a second goal to make it easier for us to play,” said Winkler. “But they played the long ball to the big striker, which was very difficult to defend.
“The problem was the beginning of the second half where we tried to have more possession, but we couldn’t do that and Blackpool started their game and, in the end, we have to say they deserved their win.
“We wanted to win, we wanted to be in the second round so I’m sorry for Moncur that his brilliant goal didn’t help us to win this match.”
Just shy of 1,000 Barnsley supporters travelled to the Lancashire coast on Tuesday – the sixth biggest Carabao Cup away following of the evening and third biggest for a Sky Bet League One team.
In the wake of their first setback this campaign, Winkler insists that attention will now turn to league priorities, starting with the visit of the Wombles this weekend.
“You could see from our line-up that we had a lot of players that played on Saturday, we wanted to win the match and be in the second round against a good opponent,” continued the Reds’ Assistant.
“We are disappointed, but as the gaffer said in the dressing room: that’s football. You can’t win every game, it’s very early in the season so we’re disappointed but we’ll pick ourselves up and look forward to Saturday.
“The league games are most important for us. Now we know how it feels to lose, and we have to get our heads up and put in a good performance against AFC Wimbledon.
“We’re very proud of our supporters and I’m very sorry for them that we couldn’t win."