City man reflects on performance against Tupi
Looking back at the Grecians’ 2-1 win at Tupi, Danny Butterfield was pleased with the attitude that the team took to turn a deficit into a win.The game against the Série C side from Juiz de Fora was Exeter’s third pre-season fixture, following a 1-0 defeat to Reading at St James Park and a goalless draw with a Fluminense XI.
With the season edging ever nearer, the emphasis on the friendly games is gearing up more and more towards getting results and winning games by the day.
So Butterfield was pleased to turn in a good performance and earn a victory in the final throes, with centre-half Danny Coles the matchwinner from a set-piece.
“I think it’s important to score goals and win games, and we’re really pleased with the character to come from behind and score two goals to win the game,” said Butterfield.
“In the first game, Fluminense were very keen on keeping possession and weren’t in too much of a rush to get the ball forward, whereas tonight they caused us a few problems early on when going forward at pace and playing longer balls.
“But I think we handled that very well, despite the changes from the Fluminense game, and we finished the game very strongly and obviously scoring a couple of goals to win it is a plus.
“We showed a lot of character to come back and that bodes well for us to take into the season and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Butterfield was signed as a right-back but was deployed as a holding midfielder against Reading – and shone in that position.
And while the Grecians’ squad is thinner than it was last year, Danny feels that the adaptability and close-knit nature of the group will more than compensate. Paul Tisdale was forced into changing things around when Jordan Moore-Taylor was withdrawn early against Tupi with a foot injury but the side coped well.
“We have a smaller squad but players who are capable of playing in many different positions,” he continued.
“We had to reshuffle quickly early on when we lost Jordan and it took us a few minutes but we had to get on with it.
“Obviously we made a few more changes to the positions on the pitch in the second half and the goals were testament to our good character.
“We’re a squad that wants the best for each other so we’ve knuckled down and got on with the hard work and got the best out of what we’ve had.”