The Latics slipped up again on Saturday when they went down 2-3 at home to neighbours Rochdale, who had been reduced to ten men. Fortunately for the Latics, other results went their way, except for Blackpool winning, so their safety is still in their own hands if they can win the games in hand.
A dejected John Sheridan said, “I am very disappointed, especially as it’s a derby. I’m a bit frustrated and down because I felt once we got the goal we had some good chances. If we had some anticipation in the box, the game would have been put to bed in the first half. Rochdale are a good team and good footballing side but once we got a grip of it, we dominated. The penalty knocks us back and gives them a little bit of belief going into half time. They had a man sent off and your think it gives us the advantage but it wasn’t to be because we came out after half time and I don’t know what was going on with their goals. You see me on the sidelines, I get so frustrated because we get punished for the silly little mistakes we make. They have scored goals and we got punished. We huffed and puffed but we didn’t have any cuteness around the box. I’m pleased for Aaron to get his first two goals. They were two great strikes but again it’s frustrating to come away with the defeat.”
“The effort was there but it’s not always about the effort. We have a lot of players who put a good shift in but when the most impotent thing, the ball, is around them we fight with it a little. Hopefully I can take care of that and play with the ball a little bit more. I don’t want to keep relying on other results. It obviously helps us but a win would have got us out the bottom four. It’s going to be frustrating, it’s going to be up and down and that’s the way it’s going to be. The most important thing is that we stay in the division. Now we have to surprise everyone with a win over the league leaders next week and then we have Chesterfield. We have two big games in close succession. Easter is always an important period. If you can string some results together then you will be alright but it’s a big downer today.”