Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale said his side’s victory over Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night gave them ‘more than three points’ as the Grecians battled back from an 88th-minute goal to score two in injury time to win the match.
The three points took City back into the play-off places, with games in hand over their promotion rivals. However, it was the manner in which the Grecians won the match that Tis thinks will give them an extra boost going into the final 14 games of the season.
“I’m pretty pleased,” said Tis. “I just really enjoyed that last two minutes – on the grand scheme of things, I think we deserved a result, we didn’t deserve to lose.
“We needed one of those games, we certainly needed one of those games. We’ve not had that type of position, that type of reaction this season that’s created that type of feeling.
“It’s very good for us, it’s three points for us but it’s more than three points.”
After going behind, the Grecians sent on Robbie Simpson after and Tis said having the extra man in the box helped them.
He said: “The irony was, with 15 minutes to go, we discussed numerous times putting Robbie Simpson on. We hadn’t crossed it enough, we played some nice football but we didn’t put the ball in the box enough.
“We didn’t have that sync with the players in the box but it would have been a risk to put Robbie on, because the game was in the balance. So Crewe scoring made it obvious – the fact we’d been thinking about it meant we knew exactly where we were going to go for it as we didn’t have much time to respond.
“So it was Robbie Simpson on to just give Jayden a bit more of support and make us cross the ball – it was stick or twist, we had no option.
“It was, just when we needed it, 30 seconds to go, we found Jayden in the right place and he steadied himself, but what a fantastic ball.
“It was good for Jayden, as he’d been in there numerous times but, having Robbie Simpson in there alongside him, suddenly there was another player for them to mark and Jayden found himself spare.”
Speaking about his team’s desire to get a winner, after Jordan Moore-Taylor’s equaliser, Tis added: “I have to say, the moment of the game for me was us scoring the equaliser and our response – back to the halfway line. Every single player in shape, ready to go.
“With two minutes to go, that said to me ‘we want to score another’. I felt that on the touchline but the way our players responded to the equaliser, whether we’d got the winner or not, I was really pleased with the reaction.
“Crewe were slow to take the kick-off. They didn’t really want to take it, they thought the game was over, but the team in yellow shirts were back, ready to go.”