JOHN Sheridan says he shoulders some of the blame for the predicament Oldham Athletic find themselves in.

Latics stand on the precipice of the Football League, four points from safety with just three games to go, one less than the only teams - Stevenage and Barrow - that remain in reach.

Sheridan inherited a side seven points adrift when he returned to take charge in January, and gave cause for optimism when the team embarked on a seven-game unbeaten run.

But since that upturn in form was ended by a 2-1 home defeat to Carlisle United, in which they missed a penalty, Latics have lost a further eight from 10.

For Sheridan, who came out of retirement to try to save his beloved Oldham - just as he had done one two previous occasions to coin the term 'Shezurrection', it is hard to stomach.

"You know why I've come back here. I'd retired, I'd packed in football. I've come back because I love the club, and I love the fans, and we got off to a great start," he said.

"But I'm absolutely down as... I don't know. Because I never thought... I really believed we'd have enough. But we've made life so difficult for ourselves, and we're making it even more difficult with three games to go. But still while there's a chance you've just got to believe that we can possibly do it, but it's going to be very, very difficult."

Latics have been down on their luck while down at the bottom, with three penalty misses in their last 11 games, and a succession of injuries, suspension and illness causing disruption, most significantly at the back. There have been a catalogue of costly errors too.

"There are too many things that have occurred on too many occasions and it's gone on throughout the season - while I've been here, before I came here, and it's why we are where we are," said Sheridan.

"I'm to blame as well, I'm picking the team and picking the players I think should be playing, so I'll take a bit of that myself.

"We've been in a difficult situation all season. We've done well since I came in and we haven't done well. I just wish players would learn and work harder to know what they're good at, know what they're bad at, know what each other's good at, know what each other's bad at and you can be a half decent player.

"I think it's so simple the instructions we try to give them. Don't run with the ball when you can pass it, don't take 20 touches, control it, pass it, get the ball and move it.

"I see so many things that cost us and people probably don't see that, they just look at the goal when it goes into the back of the net. We give opportunities when we've got possession of the ball in the opposition's half, we end up conceding corners and free kicks. We would have a corner ourselves, and it's happened on a couple of occasions when we've conceded goals.

"But I don't want to get on their backs or anything.

"I'm trying to get everything out of them that I can."