Tisdale looking for more cohesion at home
City manager Paul Tisdale is determined to put right the Grecians home form after seeing his side lose 1-0 at home to Chesterfield on Saturday. A first-half header by Chris Atkinson was enough to secure the visitors the points and leave the Grecians without a victory in 3 home games.
The Grecians boss said: “We were not good enough today, it wasn’t a good enough performance and it was a bit confused.
“Our direction wasn’t cohesive we didn’t have that common direction with our play.
“There wasn’t a lack of honesty or will, those things can be questioned when you don’t have commitment and we have that, we certainly have a few challenges ahead. It wasn’t a good day for us.”
Without a league win since the away victory over Wycombe in September and no goals in 3 games, Tisdale is determined to get his side back to winning ways starting with tomorrow’s away trip to Dagenham and Redbridge.
“We weren’t at a good enough level today in our play so regardless of whether we got that goal or not it wasn’t acceptable for what I hope to be a success team, it’s not something I’m ignoring, I need to give us some better direction at home.
“As it stands we just want to get into the next game against Dagenham or Redbridge,” he said.
Tisdale has identified City’s bad habit of conceding the first goal as the side’s current achilles heel. The last time City scored first at St James Park was when Jamie Cureton scored in the 3-0 win over Burton Albion on 1 September.
“I know what the issues are. There is no lack of honesty from the players, they need some guidance but they need to make sensible decisions. I don’t think today we had enough players making practical decisions.
“We are not playing well enough at home and the results are very poor but it’s something that I don’t think we’ve had a problem with before. Hopefully it’s a current issue that we will resolve.
I’ve put a lot of thought into it and obviously conceding the first goal hasn’t helped and that’s not an excuse, it our fault,” he said.
“We’ve conceded the first goal too many times and it’s made life difficult for us and we need to address that. “
City travel to Dagenham and Redbridge tomorrow night, with City’s away form currently standing at 4 wins and 2 defeats Tisdale is confident he can put an end to the Grecians poor run.
Tisdale said: “We have a very clear identity in the away games and we are trying to replicate that in our home games.
“We need to look at the home games as a separate entity to the away games.”