Jordan Tillson was quick to put today’s defeat to Blackpool behind saying that the team is focused on putting things right this week when they face Bristol Rovers at home in the Checkatrade.com Trophy on Tuesday and then Northampton Town in League Two on Saturday.
The Grecians fell to a 3-2 loss to Blackpool in the Emirates FA Cup first round on Saturday as goals from Joe Dodoo, Mark Cullen and Harry Pritchard gave the visitors a three-goal lead inside the opening 24 minutes. City responded after the break though as Tillson and Tristan Abrahams both netted but they couldn’t find an equaliser.
“They were three soft goals, but we have got to just bounce back,” said Jordan. “We had chances at 1-0 down didn’t we, but it is done now we have got to get on with it.
“It is football and it is time to move onto the next game which is Tuesday. We will learn loads from today. The lads who have played today will learn from it and Jimmy (Oates), Dara (O’Shea) and Archie (Collins) are still young in terms of their professional careers and they got a lot of minutes today which will help them progress.”
It was Tillson who got City back into the game on 69 minutes when he followed up on Pierce Sweeney’s saved penalty to fire home and then Abrahams deflected effort made it 3-2 late on. The second half performance was a positive to take from the game and going into Tuesday night’s Checkatrade.com Trophy game with Bristol Rovers, where both teams have already qualified for the knockout stages, Jordan says they must build on that display.
“It is a platform to work on and we have got two tough games this week,” he said. “There is not much to play for in the Bristol Rovers game (on Tuesday night) but there is a bit of pride there and going into the Northampton game it is definitely something we can build on. Second half we played really well so we have got to use that as an opportunity to push on again.”