Steven Schumacher says his side must sharpen up in front of goal to avoid a repeat of their Reading frustration.
Wanderers failed to add to Mason Burstow’s strike early in the second half and paid the price when Reading grabbed a deflected goal of their own to take an unlikely point from a 1-1 draw.
“We played well, limited the opposition to very little, but haven't found a way to win the game, which is hugely frustrating,” said Schumacher, whose side has lost just once in League One this season but sits in the bottom half of the embryonic table with five points from four games.
“We created a number of opportunities, played some brilliant football, had 21 shots on the opposition goal, but only hit the target four times, so that's not good enough.
“The lads aren't stupid, they understand that they've got to find a way to be ruthless, find a way to be street-wise, not give away a silly goal. Two or three times we had a chance to look after the ball and didn't, gave them the ball back and then Sod's law in football, a deflection punishes us.
“Obviously we scored the deflected goal as well, and that's what happens if you hit the target, it's got a chance to go in.”
Wanderers must now look to build on what is an unbeaten three-match league run with maximum points against fast-starting Lincoln City in the second of two home games in the space of four days.
And Schumacher admits the right result is important as his new-look side looks for take-off on the back of some highly promising performances which should have yielded more.
“I just felt for the ten minutes in that second half, we just went a little bit too direct,” added the Whites’ head coach who saw Reading grab their first point of the season six minutes from the end at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
“We stopped showing for the ball and the game became a bit of a scrap and that suited Reading. In a 90-minute game, an opposition is always going to have a five, ten-minute spell at some point. It's very rare that a team dominates for a whole 90 minutes and if they do have a spell then we've got to make sure that we don't concede from it.
“It's a soft goal, it's a goal that we haven't dealt with properly and they get a bit of fortune and it costs us two vital points. I'm pleased with a lot of the performance, a lot of the performance is excellent but we haven't won so I'm disappointed.
“We’ve just got to get back to work and I suppose find a way to win a game in football. The result is even more important now because with two home games in a week you want to try and capitalise it.
“But we’re playing against a team who are playing really well. They’ve won three out of their opening four games, so it's not going to be easy. No game is easy in this division and we've got to make sure we get more than what we did tonight.”