Bradford City boss Graham Alexander said he thought his side were “immense” after they were beaten by Bolton in the League One play-off semi-final.
The Bantams were looking to secure successive promotions, having come up from League Two last season.
After a 2-0 aggregate defeat, Alexander said the campaign had shown that the West Yorkshire side have “the blueprint for something that can be successful.
“The biggest thing I want to create in any football team is an environment I would have loved to have been in as a player where you don’t care who you are up against; you just go for it, and I think that is what we have got here,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.
“I just think we need to double down on what we are; we need to improve, but I think we’ve got the blueprint for something that can be successful and the supporters can be part of.
“That’s the challenge for us again next season.”
He added: “I said to the players that we’ve proved with the togetherness, a good way of working, a real clarity you can prove it isn’t a flash in the pan.
“To do it again at a different level shows that there is a lot of good stuff, a lot of good people at our club.”
