We were lucky to only lose by three - Wigan Athletic chief

Bidding for a third league victory in a row, Latics were derailed by the Railwaymen at the Alexandra Stadium.

Indeed, had it not been for a super display by goalkeeper Jamie Jones, Latics would have been even more soundly beaten.

And Sheridan was in no mood to sugarcoat the situation after the game.

"Losing any game is a downer and very disappointing, but more than anything I just feel it was a very disappointing performance," he said.

"It was something I didn't expect from us, I expect a lot better from us, from what we've got in the team.

"After the last two results - wins against Doncaster and Portsmouth - to come out and perform like we did is hard to take as a manager.

"It's hard to try and answer questions properly after that.

"We've worked so hard in training all week, we've looked so sharp, and then we produce such a poor performance.

"Crewe were sharper, they were better on the ball, they had more options when they had the ball.

"They defended quicker and stronger than we did, the goals we conceded were just poor, poor goals to concede."

Latics almost opened the scoring in the opening 10 minutes, with only a fantastic save from Dave Richards preventing team-mate Charlie Kirk scoring a freak own goal, before Kal Naismith fired over from close range.

But once Crewe gained control, there was only going to be one winner - with Luke Offord, Harry Pickering and ex-Latics striker Mikael Mandron finding the mark for the victors.

"I actually thought we started the game not too bad, the first five or 10 minutes," Sheridan recognised.

"But after that, we just stood off too much, we allowed them to pass the ball around, and they created too many problems for us.

"It should have been even more than 3-0 to be honest.

"Jamie Jones has come away from the game with so much credit, because he's made some excellent saves.

"I can't really make any excuses after that, there's nothing really we can take out of the game.

"We've let ourselves down - we can't allow teams to dictate games to us like Crewe did today."