Manager reflects on home win against Exiles
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was pleased that his team could complete a perfect Easter weekend with a win against Newport County AFC, who were defeated 2-0 at St James Park.After the immense 3-2 victory away at Luton Town on Good Friday, the Grecians followed up with a home 2-0 win against the Exiles on Easter Monday.
David Wheeler opened the scoring with just a quarter of an hour remaining after being slipped in by fellow sub Clinton Morrison, and then Wheeler drew a late foul in the box from Ismail Yakubu – who saw a red for the challenge – allowing Ryan Harley to settle the affair from 12 yards.
While the game had a very different feel and temperament than the one three days earlier at Kenilworth Road, Paul was more than happy at securing the same result.
“If we want to have any prospect of success this year, it’s got to continue,” said Tis. “Thankfully it did today and we got three points. It has been a very good weekend.
“It wasn’t ever going to be the same as Friday [against Luton] – you could have put money on it. They sat and had a very disciplined defensive line and that meant that affects how we play. It is how we see things here often.
“Importantly we kept a clean sheet at our end and a couple of good saves from James Hamon kept us in it – that was vital. Although it wasn’t our most fluid performance, we got our win and that’s really what it’s all about at the moment.
“Some of our play was arduous but that’s often down to how the opposition defend against you. They controlled where the ball was on the pitch by where they stood and how they defended. We didn’t quite break them down and it was becoming more and more of a stalemate.
“We brought Clinton and David on and took our chances on some basic play. It was a very good combination from them which broke the deadlock.
“We knew that if we got maximum points from this weekend that it would give us an opportunity. We’ve got one now and I think we’ve earned it.
“As much as they are disappointed and we’re happy, there are still lots of teams level-pegging and there are games to go. We mustn’t get excitable – we’ve got to continue with the things that have got us results over the last month.”
The opener came from a combination between two players on the bench – Morrison and Wheeler were both introduced with quarter of the game remaining and ten minutes later, Morrison had slipped Wheeler in on goal and his shot was too hot to handle for Joe Day.
Paul was particularly pleased with the way that the pair contributed to make the goal in a game that was beginning to look destined to tail off goalless.
“It was all about the timing,” Paul continued. “In a game like today where it’s a real stalemate, it is only one bit of play. You haven’t got to put 15 passes together – sometimes it’s just the vital timing.
“The timing today was David on the burst and Clinton waited and waited and passed it at the right time.
“We know how dynamic David can be in those latter stages. He’s proving it over and over again and he’s one of the most potent threats we have. Those last 20 or 25 minutes when teams are tired, he is so effective.”