Stockport County boss Dave Challinor said he was “fuming” at the performance his side put in during their loss to Port Vale, which meant their pursuit of a League One play-off place will go to the final day.
Tuesday’s defeat by Vale means that the Hatters must get at least a point at Barnsley in the final game of the regular season to wrap up a top six spot.
The loss was Challinor’s side’s second in their past five league games and means they are fourth in the table with Plymouth, Luton Town, Stevenage and Bradford City all able to clinch a play-off spot, although County cannot be caught by Argyle.
“I have to be careful with what I say because I’m fuming with the performance that I, and everyone else, watched,” he told Radio Manchester.
“The mentality from after the game on Saturday to now, you’d love to sit there and says ‘I didn’t see that coming’. I did see that coming.
“Everybody thinking Port Vale coming here and we’d get an easy point that we need, I said to them before they went out, we’ve got to work for everything we get, and we were miles off it.”