JOHN Sheridan praised a team effort as Oldham Athletic moved within two points of safety with a win over in-form Bristol Rovers.

Latics were cut seven points adrift when the club legend returned for another spell in charge.

But seven points from his first three games - including their first back-to-back wins of the season - have put them in touching distance.

Davis Keillor-Dunn struck twice in the first half, his first with the game just 41 seconds old, to take his tally for the season to 10.

And although Bristol Rovers pulled a goal back just before the break through substitute Sam Nicholson, Latics were relentless in their pursuit of another important win, which ended a run of six unbeaten League Two games for Joey Barton's men.

"If you show a willingness and a desire to try to win games you will win games in this league," said Sheridan.

"Davis got the goals but I thought big Dylan (Bahamboula) was good tonight, he was winning things and putting himself about using his presence, and young Junior (Luamba) is a threat.

"I'd like to look at the team effort more than individuals.

"It was a team effort on Saturday and again tonight, and against Rochdale in difficult conditions.

"It's about the team, I don't like picking individuals out.

"Everyone has put a shift in and it's a great team effort. You won't games with one or two players, you'll win them with eight or nine performing on the day."

Sheridan added: “I knew Bristol would create chances and cause us problems, but overall I thought our performance was really solid.

“When you get off to a great start like we did it gets the fans buzzing straight away, and that helped us.

“I said to the players beforehand that we needed to know how to win the game, and how to go about sticking to our game-plan.

“We spoke more at half-time, and then in the second half we created lots of opportunities to finish the game off."

Callum Whelan was denied a third for Latics when his long-range effort crashed off the crossbar and looked to have crossed the line when it bounced but the referee played on.

“We should have had the goal there, but I haven’t seen it back yet,” Sheridan said.