City boss left disappointed with defeat to the U’s
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was left dissatisfied by a 3-1 loss to Oxford United at St James Park.
Despite starting the stronger, the Grecians went behind to a James Constable strike after 18 minutes. The striker’s second was shortly followed by a Peter Leven goal in the second half, and Jamie Cureton’s penalty proved scant consolation at the U’s took all three points from the Boxing Day fixture.
Tisdale said: “The players are frustrated, we’re all frustrated. We have to look at every situation objectively and that’s my job to alter this trend we have of results at home.
“Sometimes when things are as disjointed as they were for large parts of today’s game, at least it gives you a simple path ahead. You do have to make some strong changes in your mind and in the way you set your team up.”
For fans and the team alike, much of the frustration has arisen because of the form in front of the home crowd. Despite picking up maximums from the last three away trips to Bradford, Gillingham and Rochdale, the Grecians haven’t quite been able to make the same headway in their fixtures at the Park.
“I’m very happy with our away form, and I don’t really want to meddle with that,” Tis continued. “I’m trying to allow the same players to be good away and be good at home. I’m trying to find a solution for those same 11 or 12 players that are playing virtually every week for them to reproduce their form at home.
“Games at home and away are different in the way that the opposition play and we have to find a way that fits and that will work for us. It has been a disappointing first half of the season with our home form, but not something I’m going to give up on.
“We were the side most likely to score in that first 20 minutes – but it doesn’t always work that way. We’ve had bad starts and conceded, and we’ve had good starts and conceded. There seems to be a constant there – we’ve conceded.
“We’ve started well today, but there’s no excuses for a soft goal against. But one of the things I’ve been critical of the team about is that we haven’t started games with enough positive forward play. Today we did that brilliantly – it was the best start we’ve had for a long time at home, but we just didn’t get the goal.”
Despite the enigmatic set of results, Tis is confident that his side will be able to solve the puzzles laid out in front of them and have a more enjoyable time at St James Park in 2013.
“I’m acutely aware of where we’ve failed in recent games at home. Going back over the first half of the season, we’ve failed too many times in our home games. It’s a bit of a rubik’s cube at the moment, but we’ll sort it out.”