Rob Edwards conceded the “pressure will build” on his Luton Town team following their stunning defeat at Bournemouth last night.
The relegation-threatened Hatters led 3-0 at half-time at the Vitality Stadium but Bournemouth came storming back to win 4-3 with Antoine Semenyo scoring twice.
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A win would have taken Edwards’ men out of the bottom three but, instead, they remain in the relegation zone, three points behind fourth-bottom Nottingham Forest, who visit Kenilworth Road on Saturday.
Edwards told the BBC: “We played really well but the warning signs were still there.
“There’s lots for us to look back at and dissect. We’ll have to review it and look back. I’ve got to take responsibility.
“We gave them the encouragement, the crowd got up and we have to defend those situations a lot better.
“We’re still in the fight. Clearly now you start running out of games and the pressure will build. We have got to accept that.”
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The focus for Luton now switches to an enormous game against Forest at the weekend.
Edwards added: “It’s going to hurt but we have to pick ourselves up. We have another huge game in a few days’ time and we’ve got no other option but to pick ourselves up and go again.
“It’s still the same going into this next game and there is still a long way to go after Saturday as well. We are not out of this fight. We are three points behind the team above us and our job is to try and win the game on Saturday.
“We’ll patch ourselves up and see where we are at numbers and bodies-wise at the weekend and we will go again.”
Bournemouth are 13th and in no danger of going down this season.
And with the pressure now off, Semenyo was happy to reflect on an “amazing” comeback.
He said: “I haven’t been involved in a game like that before.
“We knew there would be chances in the game, so as soon as the first one went in we knew there were going to be many more.
“We just had to continue playing the way we were playing.
“Even when we are down at half-time we know that man to man our game is about bravery.
“So in the second half whether we are down or up, we are going to be pressing the same way.
“We know we were going to have chances and the second half was amazing.”
