Dan Gardner insists he will not give up on Oldham Athletic's play-off dream while it remains mathematically possible.

A five-point gap has opened up between Latics and the top seven, with a miserable run of one win in their last 10 games sending them plummeting out of the current play-off picture.

Games are running out, with just four remaining. And their first back-to-back defeats of the season were particularly costly with the second of them coming on Easter Monday against an Altrincham team that now occupy fourth place, when Latics had themselves been knocking on the door of second and third just over a month ago.

Micky Mellon's men need to win all four of their final fixtures and hope teams above them slip up if they are to stand any chance of prolonging their season and pushing for a return to the Football League.

It is out of their hands and it is a long shot.

But while there is still some hope, ahead of Saturday's lunchtime derby with Rochdale (kick-off 12.30pm), Gardner says he is determined to keep fighting.

"We've got to give it everything. Ever since I've been at this club that's the minimum I do," said the midfielder, who returned for his second spell at Boundary Park in the summer of 2022.

"Everyone knows what the club means to me.

"I try to give everything whether I'm playing well or not I'll run my socks off and I'll try to galvanise the team and get everything out of the other lads.

"We've got to keep going and hopefully we get something this season.

"If not we've just got to stick together as team, as a club, as a fanbase. We need everyone.

"I know the fans are down at the minute, like I am, but we've got to stick together and hopefully we will bring good times to the club, whether that's this season or next. We'll see what happens."

Gardner, 34, added of the play-off picture: "It's still doable but days like (Easter Monday) it gets me angry. I think we played okay in parts, and probably the best we'd played in a while in the second half. But it's not good enough and the lads know it's not good enough and we've got to do something about it, whether that's in the next couple of weeks or whether that's next season.

"We've got to stand up and take ownership and the lads know that."