Tis asking for 10 per cent more
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale will be asking for 10 per cent more from his players on tonight (Tuesday) when they take on Championship side Brentford at St James Park.The game, in the EFL Cup, kicks-off at 7.45pm and comes three days after City lost their opening League Two game of the season 2-0 away at Blackpool.
The Grecians hit the post twice in the game after falling behind to Kyle Vassell’s 19th-minute opener, but Tisdale said his side have to be better at chasing down leads and were perhaps hindered by the fact that they didn’t have the opportunity to do that in pre-season.
Tisdale said: “I’m asking for 10 per cent more, but itt is amazing how different the game is when you are in the lead rather than the opposition.
“When you are not the team that is having to make those extra runs, while the opposition can just sit there. The only thing we can say is the last three meaningful pre-season games we have been the team that has been in the lead and not the opposition. That is one thing we have to learn from Saturday. I had 10 minutes with the players afterwards and they are disappointed, but we move on.”
City have not played Brentford since March 2012 when both sides were in League One and Tisdale’s team will go into the match as underdogs as they are now playing a side that is two divisions above them in the English Football League.
Brentford also lost their opening game of the season away at Huddersfield, but Tisdale was not getting too down about his team’s defeat.
“We could have easily got a goal back, so let’s not become too miserable about the whole thing,” he said. “I’m bitterly disappointed with have lost the game, but I think we were 10 per cent away from playing really well.
“Those fine lines make a big difference in a game of football though. Yes, we could have come back into it, but keeping a clean sheet to half-time or that hour mark would have been a big, positive step forward for us.”
Troy Archibald-Henville and Troy Brown are both doubts for the game having picked up injuries.