Teams’ Thoughts on the 1-1 Chesterfield Result

A tough 1-1 for Exeter City at the Proact Stadium on Good Friday. Does look like 2 points dropped though against promotion hopeful Chesterfield. 227 Grecians travelled to see Exeter turn in a better performance than of late. Paul Tisdale speaking after the match said:-

It was a fantastic performance and a well-deserved point. I feel very disappointed that we didn’t get three because on the run of the game we had enough to get the three today.  It might sound odd, but I’m bitterly disappointed.

We absorbed pressure, and did it very well.  We played through their team and counter-attacked, and created real clear-cut chances.  We got our goal from a deflected free-kick, but if anyone thinks we were lucky today, that is doing us a disservice.

We played our game, the players worked extremely hard and we defended our goal extremely well under their pressure.  Our season was summed in that minute when Tom Nichols hit the inside of the post with his header from the corner, and within a minute they had a penalty.

It is all down to the execution. We went to Bury with a certain type of understanding about how we wanted to play, and it seemed to be a bit insipid and we ended up defending and not attacking.

Today we went with a defensive shape, but with a real thrust to our counter-attack.  You get judged on the execution.  If you shoot and it goes in, it’s different to if you shoot and you miss – you’re judged on what you achieve.

On Matt Grimes first senior goal for the Grecians, Tisdale had this to say:-

I’m pleased he’s got a goal – there has been a strike and a score coming from him this season. He does like to take a shot, and well done to him.  It shows that if you hit the target – albeit with the slightly deflection – you can score.

Chesterfield’s manager Paul Cook said:

We never played well today, we huffed and puffed. When you play against teams that dominate the middle of the pitch, in terms of men, you’ll struggle to get the ball back.

What Exeter were doing to us with their diamond and five at the back was allowing us to come out free up the sides but then dominating the middle of the pitch.

Points at this stage of the season are very important, whether it be one or three. With the games running out it’s important that we pick points up.

Matt Grimes was clearly delighted with his first goal spoke on the Club website:-

It’s pleasing – a few people have said to me throughout the games that I’ve played that I need to get on the scoresheet. It is one thing that I need to add to my game, so it’s pleasing to get off the mark.

Jordan (Moore-Taylor) was winding me up about it last night in the hotel, asking, ‘how many goals have you scored?!’ I told him that he had played one more game than me, so I’ve got one game to get on the scoresheet.

We got top of them and played really well, and would have fully deserved the three points. We didn’t think it was a penalty, but the referee gave the decision.  We are disappointed because we felt we should have taken all three points, but that’s what happens in football. The lads felt hard done by from a decision that shouldn’t have gone against us.  But we’re looking at the positives – we played some really good football and we know we’d have deserved it.

On Sam Moresy’s sending off Grimes added:-

He was in everyone’s ear early on in the game and just being silly about things.  I don’t think anyone could say they were surprised by it. He was standing on people’s toes on goal-kicks and little things like that.  So it was no big surprise; everyone saw it coming really.