Paul looks back at defeat to Torquay at the Park
A chance to secure a place in Sky Bet League 2 for the 2014/15 season went begging for Exeter City at the hands of near-neighbours Torquay United, who completed a turnaround to win 2-1 at St James Park.
Scot Bennett scored in the first half for Exeter, but quick-fire goals within ten minutes of the restart by Courtney Cameron and Ashley Yeoman downed the Grecians and kept City sweating.
The result also postponed the near-inevitable relegation of Torquay United, who need wins in both of their last two games and a host of results to go their way if they are going to make a miraculous survival.
Grecians manager Paul Tisdale was understandably disappointed with a defeat to the division’s basement club, but is keen to make sure that Exeter focus their attentions forward to the final two games of the 2013/14 season.
“You’d be surprised if I wasn’t disappointed, and I am,” he said. “It was a game we were desperate to win, but we didn’t play well enough and we’ve lost the game.
“I’m disappointed, and I have to temper that with thoughts of the last two games. As much as it hurts and I’m upset and disappointed, I have to make sure that we keep our focus and togetherness going into the final two games.
“This weekend has been symptomatic of our form and our play and our team. At Chesterfield on Friday we looked like a promotion team and we should have won the game easily, albeit we couldn’t put the ball in the net to get a second.”
Next up for Exeter is Scunthorpe, who are yet to be beaten since the arrival of Russ Wilcox. The Iron sit on top of the table and would secure promotion with a win – even a draw would be enough to pop a few corks, given the magnitude of their goal-difference against fourth-placed Fleetwood.
But City are one of just four teams to have beaten the Iron in the league this season – and the 4-0 Exeter win at Glanford Park was comfortably their heaviest defeat.
The contrasting performances against teams at either end of the table over the course of Easter is in keeping with a lot of City’s performances this season – so Paul is remaining confident going into the next game at St James Park that Exeter will rise to the challenge posed by Scunthorpe.
“It’s in our hands – we’re playing against a very good team next week, but that shouldn’t hold any more fear for us than a game against Torquay this week,” Paul continued. “You’ve seen our form and record against the teams in this league – that’s the type of team we are. We’ve got two games to go and we’ve got to do the job.
“We are together as a group – we’ve got a group of people that are very much committed and purposeful. I’m an optimist and I always think we can win the next game, so we will go into the next game thinking we can win.”