Midfield star Simon Clist says it will not take long for Monday’s celebrations to be consigned to the past as Oxford United switch attention to the future – and their bid to beat York at Wembley on Sunday, May 16.

“Promotion is still the big prize that we want,” Clist insisted.

“It’s great for the fans. But we haven’t won anything yet, we’re just one step closer.

“We’ll prepare for it right. We’re delighted with how Monday went and everyone could see the fans were as well, but we’ll soon get our minds back on what we have to do.”

Clist, who was outstanding in the 2-0 semi-final second leg win over Rushden, said the powerful showing in the first leg at Nene Park set the U’s up perfectly.

“We set ourselves out well and produced a good away performance, and we knew we had to stick to the plan we had, and everyone did that.

“In the first half on Monday we cancelled each other out a bit and we always knew that the energy we’ve got as a team would take us a long way, and the home fans here help you as a player.”

He added: “Our first aim this season was always to get automatic promotion. We didn’t manage that, but our focus is still very much on winning promotion, now through the play-offs.”

The former Bristol City, Torquay United, Barnet and Forest Green player has visited Wembley, but never laid foot on the pitch.

“It’s every player’s ambition to play there, it’s going to be fantastic,” he said.