Chesterfield v Walsall play-off preview: The perfect Saddlers tonic for fresh challenge

But, barely 24 hours after Bradford City's Antoni Sarcevic deflected in a 96th-minute winner at Valley Parade condemning the Saddlers to the play-offs, it was time for the club's end of season awards at Bescot.

Head coach Sadler conceded he was unsure about the mood in the room, with supporters invited to the presentation evening.

Taylor Allen swept the board with three awards and others were recognised following the fourth-placed finish in League Two. Sadler felt it was the perfect way to end a weekend of disappointment and refocus his troops into the new challenge ahead - a double-legged tie to make Wembley and a second crack at promotion.

"Honestly I don't think I have," Sadler said when asked about lifting his troops. "We came back together. It was brilliant to have the awards last Sunday.

"Going into it I thought it might be the sort of thing that wouldn't be great for the guys, to be back together in that situation.

"But it was exactly the opposite of that. It was a brilliant evening and the supporters were fantastic, the awards were great and the guys were together.

"Something I thought was maybe not needed was exactly what was needed.

"When we came back together to train it was all gone and we moved on very quickly. We've had a good training week, worked really hard, the guys have really put the work in in preparation to play a fantastic team.

"We know we will have to be right on top of our game and we're really looking forward to it."

The head coach added in reflection of his side's final-day drama: "I thought we handled last weekend really well with a very young team, Liam (Gordon) was the oldest starter at 25 and that's fantastic for us as a group to have a young, energetic team.

"Of course there was that disappointment, because of how late it was, but very quickly we knew the job now was focus and prepare for the second bite at the cherry."

There have been eight goals in the two games between the Saddlers and the Spireites this season.

Sadler's troops have had the edge. October's trip to Derbyshire ended in a 2-2 draw - former loan goal machine Nathan Lowe, top scorer at last weekend's awards - fired a brace.

February brought a 3-1 Saddlers win at Bescot.

"The reason everyone loves the play-off games is because they are so exciting," said the head coach. "I'm sure it will be the same and I'm sure there will be goals in the games that we play because that has been the case in the two games we've played so far.

"There are two teams that want to play the game in the right way. Going to Chesterfield they are a good team with threats that can hurt you.

"So we have to be on that, be aware and get our own threat there. There is excitement to cup and play-off games that maybe isn't the same as league games. We can draw on memories from so far this season that we'll need."