Cheltenham Reaction
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale has praised City fans after seeing the Grecians lose 3-0 away to Cheltenham. Without a win in 8 games, 908 travelling Grecians made the trip to Gloucestershire only to see their side concede 3 second-half goals.
City manager Tisdale is confident that with the help of the fans, the club can pull through the current bad set of results.
Tisdale said: “The fans are here today in their numbers, and we are very grateful for their continued support, it’s frustrating for us all, them included.
“I hope the fans can see the spirit and effort that we are playing with and trust us to isolate and eradicate some of the issues we’ve got.
“They were fantastic again today and it’s very hard for me to not feel for them because of the effort and the money they afford towards supporting us.”
Tisdale believes the Grecians can’t continue to concede the first goal. City have only registered 5 points from a losing position. A draw against Dagenham and Redbridge came about thanks to Jamie Cureton’s equaliser and a late John O’Flynn goal rescued a point at home to York.
City’s only win from a losing position came against Wycombe when Danny Coles got the winner in a 3-2 victory after Gary Ainsworth opened the scoring for Wycombe early in the first-half.
With this in mind Tisdale is determined to make sure his side gives themselves a chance by scoring first.
He said: “The first goal was the turning point. We have to score first in these types of games because else it’s going to be hard for us. When we have scored first we have been effective.
“I think at the end of the game I think we played enough football to have scored a goal but if we can’t defend at the crucial moments then we put pressure on ourselves to score.
“I’m just very disappointed because I can see the level of play we have in the team but we've not managed to perform at the crucial moments.
It’s not the first time, it’s becoming a trend, it’s very frustrating when we can play and pass as well as we did today and create many chances,” he said.
The 3-0 scoreline did not reflect City’s dominant passing game which allowed City to create a host of chances, which on a different day could have found the back of the net.
The Exeter manager said: “I don’t see how we can continue not scoring when we create as many chances as we did today.
“I am frustrated, but that’s the life of being a professional football manager.
“We get periods of games when things go very well and other periods when things go badly which they have done over the last month.
It’s about carrying on with the things that are good and working on the things that have cost us.”