GARY Bowyer insists there can be no more mention of Saturday’s farcical finish as City begin the process of lifting themselves from a costly defeat.

The Bantams must rebuild from the bottom of League One after the late loss at Oxford.

They dropped a place after Wimbledon’s win over Southend and the gap to safety has increased to six points again.

Bowyer now faces the task of getting heads back up from the weekend drama when referee Andy Davies took around five minutes before eventually awarding Oxford’s stoppage-time winner.

The scenes overshadowed the result as both teams surrounded the officials, who at one stage appeared to have overruled it in favour of retaking a goal kick at the other end.

Some City players even thought that Davies was going to give them a penalty.

Bowyer will study the game again with the players as part of training this morning – but will not allow it to become a free-for-all about the referee’s actions.

He said: “We 100 per cent have to move on. The emotion of how they feel, they’ve then got to channel into the week ahead for the next game.

“We will analyse and debrief the game. We showed qualities in terms of digging in, fighting and competing but we’ve got to be better with the ball and we’ll work on that.”

City would have gone within one point of escaping the relegation zone with a win. Instead, the difference has got bigger as they go into the final eight games.

Bowyer added: “I’ve never seen anything like it, not just in my career but in my life. It was a crazy day in football.

“Players get accused at times of not caring. But if you walked in the dressing room afterwards, you’d have seen them on their knees.

“They were absolutely gutted, just like the supporters, but we have to dust ourselves down.

“There are plenty more games left and more points and the players have got to show the form they did with the wins around the Christmas period.

“We are more than capable. I think we’ve shown we are difficult to beat in the three games, competitive, aggressive, organised and we’ve got to keep making sure we fight for every minute.”

Bowyer agreed the late controversy fuels the argument for VAR video technology to be used at all levels and not just in the Premier League.

“I saw a couple of the Oxford lads signalling to the stand ‘VAR’,” he said. “What’s that all about?

“They wanted someone to check it for the game – but it’s not here.

“But that’s where VAR has got to come in.

“It’s designed for moments like this, penalties, goals, whether the ball has crossed the line. It’s just absolute carnage.

“You’ll be talking about it forever but we’ve got to make sure that we get over it very quickly.

“We’ve got to regroup and keep building.”

Wimbledon jumped to third from bottom with their third straight win. City are two points behind Rochdale, who have a game in hand.

Bowyer added: “Our aim is still the points and that’s what I keep telling the players. Our status in League One was not going to be decided on Saturday.

“We’ve got to keep showing that fight and looking at the points. Don’t worry about the other scores, just concentrate on us.

“The players know that I won’t change with that and we’ve got to do that for the remaining games.”