Jim Bentley admitted flak from Rochdale supporters left him feeling “low” after his bottom-of-the-league side crashed to a 2-0 home loss against Gillingham.
Goal in each half from Oli Hawkins and George Lapslie secured the points for the Gills, themselves fighting for Football League survival.
The result left Dale six points adrift of safety at the foot of the table and staring into the abyss of non-league football for the first time in more than a century.
Bentley, who took charge after Robbie Stockdale was sacked at the end of August last year, was jeered by home supporters, some of whom were calling for his head after a run of one win from the last 15 games.
“When that second goal goes in there’s a lot of hostility towards me because I’m the manager and I carry the can,” said Bentley.
“It’s my team – well, it’s not my team, it’s my team as it is now but I have inherited a team and I am just low.
“The fans here have been starved. The club has had a difficult time, they have lost players and had off-field issues, we haven’t been strong enough at home and you can go on about this, that and the other but ultimately we haven’t been good enough.
“I understand everyone’s emotions and I understand the criticisms, everyone is entitled to their opinions and they can have a go at me all they want – that’s life.
“You have to have thick skin in this game and I can’t throw the towel in until it’s a mathematical certainty we’re down. But with the run we’ve been on, I could be out of a job.
“We haven’t won enough games and we’re bottom of the league. But I’ll keep going and ultimately we have to get the basics right – the goals we concede are soft.”
Hawkins’ 24th-minute opener was down to poor defending, the frontman left unmarked six yards from goal to convert Robbie McKenzie’s cross.
Ian Henderson, Scott Quigley and Toby Mullarkey all went close for the home side, but Dale could not find a finish and they paid the price when Tom Nichols’ effort was touched home by Lapslie in the 76th minute.
Gills boss Neil Harris said: “I’m really chuffed. Normally I’d play it down a bit but I’m delighted with the group of players I’ve got, delighted with the fans. They are so behind us now and they are enjoying the team and the club now, six points from the last two games – I have to be happy with that.
“We have some difficult fixtures coming up but we’re moving in the right direction.
“It was a professional display against a team that’s fighting for their lives and I thought personally they had to beat us if they were to have a chance of catching us.”
