JOHN Sheridan said his first defeat was hard to take but felt Oldham Athletic were "beaten by the better team" in the survival six-pointer with Carlisle United.

Latics took the lead for the fourth consecutive game, with Hallam Hope's first half stoppage time finish against his former club, after Davis Keillor-Dunn had an earlier penalty saved. But for the third game in a row they could not capitalise and take maximum points.

The previous two games, at Colchester and Crawley, had ended in draws, and it looked to be heading in the same direction against the Cumbrians after Patrick Omari had cancelled out Hope's strike early in the second half. But Latics succumbed to sustained pressure from Carlisle and Morgan Feeney snatched a last gasp winner.

It was a first defeat in eight games since Sheridan returned to take charge of Oldham, who remain in the bottom two.

"We created one or two chances with balls going into the box, but I thought they always looked quite bright, a decent footballing side without causing us too many problems in the first half, and then to get the goal and go in at half-time 1-0," said the Latics head coach.

"I'm very disappointed again with the second half performance because again we're going in 1-0 (up) aren't we. I beat myself up when we lose anyway, and we haven't lost in seven games, but it's just the manner of it, the know-how, and having a bit of nouse about you as a player and as a team and knowing what your team-mates should be doing better and knowing what each other should be doing better to get the result over the line.

"We're all talking in the changing at half-time, don't do this, don't do that, we get a throw-in in the first 30 seconds and we give it straight to the opposition, 30 seconds later there's a free kick we give them so cheaply, another 30 seconds we lose the ball when we're in comfortable possession of it, 30 seconds later they score.

"There's three things there in a minute and a half. Probably the players don't realise what it is, I've seen it. I told them at half-time before we went out 'be switched on, don't get the basics wrong, don't do them, you're 1-0 up in the game, know the game'. And I just felt throughout the game we didn't get going. I just didn't feel we got going at all, making silly errors, little silly things happening, trying to thread balls through and getting caught out.

"I thought they looked sharper than us, and obviously the equaliser gives them a big boost two minutes into the second half and probably gives us more of a downer and I just felt like we didn't get going, didn't really get the fans going.

"Davis has had a massive chance at one all and should hit the target, but I could just see something happening (for Carlisle), I really could."

Sheridan conceded tiredness was a factor in a side that had covered over 1,000 miles in the last week for two long-distance away games, with injuries also impacting on their small 23-man squad.

"I do think we looked tired. We're a small squad, but I'm not looking to make excuses," he said. "That's not why we lost.

"When you're 1-0 up you've got to see games through a little bit better than what we do.

"I'll accept getting beat, I felt Carlisle were the better team in the second half, but I'm looking at us being 1-0 up, know how to control the game and get over the line, we should do that a lot lot better and we haven't done that the last three games.

"I thought Carlisle looked the sharper team and probably wanted a little bit more than we did."