Man and club, the perfect fit

GOAL! That man Peter Clarke turns away after scoring Athletic's equaliser against Rochdale.

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JOHN Sheridan's career as a habitual winner continues.

He claimed here, during a very relaxed session of post-match duties, that he has not been beaten since he arrived back at the club either in a game of table tennis in the players' lounge nor when a game of carpet bowls has broken out.

Short of an independent body able to ratify such claims, we will have to take him on his word.

On the field, Sheridan's record of nine wins since mid-January, produced from a team which had been terrified of playing in front of its own fans, invites more questions than answers.

Is there a more perfect fit in the game between manager and club?

Did he really believe that Athletic could get to safety when he came in? Do his feet get wet walking on water?

Thanks to superb wins over Fleetwood and Bolton, other results elsewhere were as important as this derby against Rochdale in rubber-stamping passage to a 21st straight season in Sky Bet League One and its equivalents.

Despite the swollen crowd, with the contest spiced up by the anticipated clash between Calvin Andrew and Peter Clarke and also Rochdale's play-off possibility, Athletic played with a lack of intensity for the first 45 minutes and could have been more than one-down by the change of ends.

TWISTED

Thirteen minutes in, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing twisted past young Jamie Stott on the right to cut back the ball perfectly for Callum Camps to fire into the roof of the net from eight yards out. It was a useful moment for the Northern Ireland under-21 international, watched as he was on the day by national team boss Michael O'Neill.

Rochdale were first to everything at that stage. Joe Bunney was impressive charging forward from left-back and the barracked Andrew played the target man role to a tee, while Mendez-Laing looked a cut above this level.

Ian Henderson saw a clever chipped effort fade away from the far post when Mendez-Laing again raced at an isolated Stott, after Ousmane Fane passed when he had to shoot with Dale goalkeeper Conrad Logan stranded way out of his goal.

Even Connor Ripley wasn't quite on it. Perhaps he was worried about the pressure placed on him by five-year-old Thomas Young, who warmed up with the goalkeeper before the game. That was one of two excellent examples of fan relations on the day, the other being the now-traditional announcing of supporters who have passed away during the season in a minute's applause pre-kick-off.

DAWDLING

Ripley was almost caught out when dawdling in dealing with a back pass after 39 minutes. If that was symbolic of an under-cooked first half effort from the hosts, the response was utterly typical of a Sheridan side that will not accept its fate without a fight.

Tope Obadeyi made a big difference coming on for Lee Erwin with his extra pace, and Fane might again have done better with a near-post header from the winger's cross shortly before the hour.

In front of 6,865 fans at a sunny SportsDirect.com Park, Stott made amends for his earlier troubles by delivering a lovely shaped free-kick from the right with his left foot that Clarke made sure he got on the end of. It was fitting that the man who suffered at the elbow of Andrew should land the blow, with his sixth goal of the campaign.

Mendez-Laing saw two attempts deflect off-target as Dale tried to get the winner that would have taken them up to sixth, with one game left. But it wasn't to be.

Though this wasn't a victory for Athletic, it almost felt like it was.

With a high-level career as a midfield artisan behind him and plenty of success as a manager to boot, it's natural that Sheridan should see little to really celebrate in avoiding the drop to League Two - one he voluntarily took this time last year before a short spell at Notts County turned sour.

"That's probably the worst we have played, in the first half, since I came back," Sheridan said. "But like we have done before, we responded in the second half. You can't play well all the time.

"It's not a celebration really for me, just avoiding relegation. But it is an achievement considering where we were."

His achievement in 2016-17 arguably eclipses the escape job even of last term.

By the end of Stephen Robinson's tenure as manager, Athletic were bottom of the table and boasting only three wins from half a season.

After Sheridan came back, nine more victories followed, with home results in particular taking a quantum leap.

He saved a team that could not even score goals. What's the next trick?

IN A NUTSHELL: Mission accomplished.