Tisdale – We Battled Well

Manager Paul Tisdale has said that he felt the Exeter team battled well in today’s encounter against Newport County at Rodney Parade.

Exeter took the lead in the second half thanks to a Harry Worley own goal from a Tom Nichols cross, but the lead lasted only 60 seconds as Newport grabbed themselves an equaliser when we failed to clear a set piece.

That was it on the scoring front for the game and with the pitch still suffering from the weather excesses of earlier in 2014, it was a performance that merited spirit and fight rather than anything particularly pretty, and speaking to the Official Site following the game Tisdale said he was pleased to see that this was exactly what the team gave him.

‘It was a hard fought point, it was a game where both sides were anxious at times – the pitch and the pressure weren’t conducive to football, and the referee did a very good job. We are disappointed that we succumbed to another goal immediately after our opener, but all things being equal, I’m pleased with how our players applied themselves. They were very focused and they covered the pitch very well, which is what you need on a day like today.’

The gaffer also believes that we finished the game very strongly again and although we didn’t manage to take any of the goal scoring opportunities we did create as the game drew to a close, he thinks it was a vital point for us and a very well deserved point, especially given there were so many good performances from the players in his eyes.

With the game playing out similarly to the ones against Burton Albion and Bristol Rovers where we took the lead through an own goal, and then were pegged back to level terms pretty quickly after, Tisdale says he doesn’t feel it’s so much that the players switch off when we take the lead, it’s more we are a touch to eager to get the second so we over stretch, and what we need to learn to do is keep it calmer and steady things down after we get our noses in front so we can stop this from happening again in the future.

The gaffer also ended his interview by picking out Jordan Moore-Taylor as his pick of our players following his performance in defence and he thinks it’s a sign of very good things to come from the 19 year old as he continues his development.