Grecians boss looks ahead to FA Cup First Round tie
EXETER CITY manager Paul Tisdale has challenged his players to demonstrate that they have learned from previous cup disappointments ahead of the Emirates FA Cup First Round tie at Didcot Town on Sunday.BT Sport will broadcast the tie live from the Draycott Engineering Loop Meadow Stadium, and with the watching audience clamouring for an upset win, the City boss indicated that his side would look to be professional and not emotional when they take to the field.
"There's two things we have to do," Paul said. "We have to learn our lessons from the past games in this competition, and secondly we have to focus on the opposition. There are things that we have fallen down on in the past, and we have to learn from our lessons.
"There's no disputing: we've had a poor FA Cup record of late, and we certainly haven't performed well enough in certain games, that's obvious. Of the last twelve FA Cup draws that we've had, eleven have been away, so that doesn't help. This one again is away, but that's not to say that we haven't contributed towards some of our errors.
"There are clear instructions for the players this week in terms of playing against an unfamiliar opponent on an unfamiliar pitch, but it ultimately is a game of football, eleven versus eleven.
"It's more of a mindset, but certainly not an issue with commitment. There are a few things we have to work on in order to ensure that things go in our favour, but there are certain things that you just can't control. We certainly can't control things like supporters sitting on our dugout like last year, and we can't control the man with the key locking us out of the dressing room and disappearing, but what we can control is what we do out there on the pitch.
"We've got instructions to follow, and plenty of the players have the experience of last year to fall back on. We need to be professional, do the job and prevent it from happening again."