Manager gives response to derby defeat
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was disappointed with the Grecians’ defending at important times in the Devon Derby against Plymouth Argyle, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the Pilgrims.Reuben Reid was the goalscorer on all three occasions – becoming the first Argyle man to net a hat-trick at the Park in the 100th competitive between the two teams – but Tis felt that the forward had been gifted the opportunities too lightly.
His first – coming midway through the first period – saw him slot home calmly after namesake Bobby Reid’s shanked effort turned into a fortuitous through-ball and left him one-on-one with Christy Pym.
Arron Davies had the sides on terms before half-time but Reid had the visitors again in front from the spot when Matt Oakley felled Lewis Alessandra in the area, and then after Olly Lee was dismissed for Argyle, Reid wrapped up the points as he capitalised on a defensive mix-up and showed good feet to slot in an ice-cool finish.
“It’s a very disappointing result. Quite clearly it is a big game for us and one you don’t want to lose, especially a home game,” said Paul.
“Today is about the goals. It’s very easy to be critical and downbeat about my team, because you’ve been beat and it looks comfortable.
“But Plymouth are a side that defend very well and if they get in front it’s very hard to come back and get goals against them. We did that in the first half which was a good step.
“I don’t think the team were at their best today, but we certainly weren’t terrible.
“But that said, the game is about goals and we conceded three goals today which were soft to say the least.
“They scored off the back of some very weak defending and some indecision, and some poor play which led to good opportunities for them.
“It’s very hard to defend the team when they have defended so poorly today at crucial times. I’m not very critical of the team, but I’m critical in isolation of three very poor bits of defending.
“It was suicide – to defend that way made the game almost impossible. It then makes everything else in the game look like we were below par. We weren’t that far below par – we just defended very poorly in three very important moments.
Th”ey put the ball in the back of the net but we gifted them those opportunities. So it’s a really disappointing afternoon.”