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GET IN . . . Athletic captain Peter Clarke (centre), Connor Ripley (left) and Brian Wilson celebrate after victory over Bolton

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JOHN Sheridan was left feeling deflated as under-par Athletic failed to back up a stirring victory over Bolton.

On a day when Port Vale lost to further ease relegation worries, an Ellis Harrison strike after 75 minutes for Bristol Rovers put extra emphasis on the home derby against Rochdale on Saturday.

Had Athletic won at the Memorial Stadium, Vale would only be able to match the 54-point total with three straight wins. They also have a significantly poorer goal difference compared to Sheridan's side.

"It was a disappointing performance for me," said the Athletic boss, who was without hamstring injury victims Anthony Gerrard and Aaron Amadi-Holloway yesterday.

"I am not going to be hard on the players as with two games to go, we have done well to get into the position we are in.

'SOMETHING'

"Obviously, I would have liked to take something from the game. I would have felt that we would be definitely safe then.

"There is still the chance that things won't turn out the way we want them to, so we have to be careful of that.

"The performance was a bit flat and the pitch was beautiful to pass the ball on.

"There was a bit of urgency once they scored, which shouldn't happen. It shouldn't take 70 minutes for us to up a gear and once we did that, we caused them one or two problems.

"I made changes and with a lack of football, there were some players who I wouldn't say didn't turn up, but it was a below-par performance."

Bury are away to Bolton tonight and a win for Wanderers would play into Athletic's hands by keeping the Shakers five points adrift with only two games left.

Frustrated by a schedule which brought two fixtures inside three days, Sheridan didn't offer the workload as an excuse and felt his team should have made more of the pressure they exerted against Rovers.

Rochdale, who were 2-0 home winners over Coventry, are now only three points off the play-offs ahead of their final two games.

"How Bury play on a Thursday and a Tuesday and we play on a Saturday and Monday is ridiculous. But I am not going to make it as a reason why we lost the game," Sheridan added.

"There was a chance for us to get something from it and we should have caused them more problems than we did.

"We had a few corners and should have been looking to do something different with them. We also had free-kicks in good areas.

"We are usually on our game and have a hunger about us. It just wasn't there.

"Results elsewhere weren't too bad for us. But we were 'nearly' doing this and that all game and I don't like that.

"We had a good performance against Bolton, but we were sloppy on a good pitch. There are no excuses. We were lethargic.

"We go into Rochdale which is a good game, a derby, and we go to try to win it."