Manager looks on to York fixture
The Grecians visit York City at Bootham Crescent on Saturday, and manager Paul Tisdale admitted that he has decisions to make ahead of the game.
The fixture comes off the back of a disappointing derby defeat to local rivals Plymouth Argyle last weekend at St James Park.
A 3-1 reverse to the Pilgrims left Exeter nine points away from the play-off positions – harbouring ambitions of promotion seemed unlikely after the opening month of the season seemed unlikely but a turnaround in results before Christmas raised hopes.
So Tis is looking ahead to York with hope of recreating the level of performance that City were showing during their purple patch this season.
“In isolation every decision is different and every decision will be influenced by circumstances around the game like injuries, form, the other team and their form and players,” Paul said.
“It is my job as manager to choose which variable I discuss and where I make my decisions. I have to say, there are plenty of decisions to make this week – more so than normal.
“But when we arrive on Saturday and we’re ready to play at 3 o’clock, we have to remember what we’re good at and how we do things.
“I’m not expecting us to be relaxed about the affair, but I’m expecting us to be pragmatic and make good decisions and play our best.
“I’m certainly not beating the players at the moment – I want them to do the best they can and we’ll all do our best together.”
A number of decisions around team selection will be forced, with a few names added to the absentee list through injury.
“We’ve got one or two issues – we’ll have a fitness test for Matt Oakley; Craig Woodman is looking unlikely to be fit after he came off at half-time on Saturday; David Noble is going to be out for two or three weeks,” explained Tis.
“There are three instantly where there is a doubt whether they’ll be fit to play on Saturday. Graham Cummins is suffering from illness so there’s a doubt whether he’ll travel with us.
“There’s good news in that James Hamon is back from injury and he is fully fit for the first time.”
While the wounds are still sore from the defeat to Argyle, Paul is opting for a considered view of the affair.
In particular he is determined not to let emotion cloud judgement or muddy the routes towards the objectives that he and the team are trying to achieve.
“It’s about getting a good balance,” he continued. “There’s no point being rosy and sunny about it, and there’s no point being downbeat and defeated about it. It is somewhere in the middle.
“You have to understand where you need to improve, but you also have to remember what you’re good at and keep upbeat. Everything is about balance.
“An extreme of emotion is never the best. We don’t like losing any game and last week was disappointing, but we move on to the next – we are professional people.
“There is always an underlying effect of any run of form but you have to focus on what you’re good at and become effective.”