Bolton Wanderers manager Steven Schumacher has warned his players “it’s only half-time” despite beating Bradford City in the first leg of their League One play-off semi-final.
Amario Cozier-Duberry scored the only goal in Saturday’s game at the Toughsheet Community Stadium with the return leg taking place on Thursday in West Yorkshire.
Schumacher insists the hard work is not over for his side as they aim to return to the Championship for the first time since 2019.
Bolton drew 1-1 at the University of Bradford stadium at the end of last month.
“We’ve got another really tough game to go there in what’s going to be an intimidating atmosphere, which we saw two weeks ago,” Schumacher told Radio Manchester.
“It’s a good challenge for us. We knew when we had the first game that it was going to be tight, and it was.
“We’ve managed to get ourselves in front, which was the important thing that we wanted to try and achieve.”
Johnny Kenny scored last month at Bradford, his fifth goal in five consecutive games, but Schumacher confirmed the Republic of Ireland midfielder, signed on loan from Celtic in February, would not be available for the rest of their play-off campaign.
“He’s got ligament damage in his knee, so that’ll be him done,” he said.
“He has six goals and a few assists. He was a constant threat, not easy to play against.
“We spoke a few weeks ago about how important he’s been for us, so I can’t deny he’s going to be missed.
“We’re missing Johnny Kenny, but someone else can step up and be the hero for us.”