EXETER CITY v CRAWLEY MDT

[PeteUSA]

Nobody remembers when we were the worlds worst at blatent timewasting when defending a lead. Back in the days of Kellow and Jimmy Giles. And it was before the rule about referees adding on time came into being.

 

[PeteUSA]

Credy: What do you think of Crawleys goals? You dont mind telling it the way it is/was.

 

[Sexton Blake]

Thats quite a match report SB. You should send that to the E&E before they trump up their version. And not to put to fine a point on it: "Christie looked a little lost a times"? You went easy there my man.

Thanks Pete having said that on reading it again I realised it needed editing but ran out of time to do it. Ninth para end of last sentence should have read “there was certainly no surprise when he was substituted on 69th minute”

I also realised that I had failed to mention Lee Martin’s contribution and that of the other two substitutes so will take this opportunity to do so.

Lee Martin also caused Crawley problems, on a number of occasions linking up well with Bowman and in my view should start ahead of Boateng on Monday. Likewise Kane Wilson, coming in the 69th minute as a replacement for Craig Woodman, who on one occasion went on a run beating a couple of defenders then when almost through into a possible goal scoring position being taken down by one of the Crawley defenders. Donavon Wilson although also coming on 69th minute did very little to suggest that he is worth a starting place.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

The referee did bugger all to get a grip on the time wasting today and the Stagecoach Lino must have been asleep when their spider legs number 28 started to kick off. Cannot recall which of our players he was having a go at.

Quite apart from the dreadful obvious Crawley timewasting tactics, I thought the officials had an excellent game. The ref didnt put a foot wrong, although I think there was a penalty appeal earlier on for handball. You wont get a referee any better than that in League 2, so there's no blaming him for our defeat. When you get a keeper getting so far across goal for their third that he dives much too far, you've got to ask WTF was that? Nothing whatever to do with the referee.

Oh do behave Pete!!!! He was that bad I actually thought he was worse than Bret Huxtable and I've no doubt you've read me wax lyrical about how I think he is, was and always will be an appalling referee not fit for the North Devon League leave alone the Football League.
As for City, apart from the first two minutes of the first half and the spell when we scored we were just as bad. We only had to perform the way we did then for about 45 minutes to an hour and we would have pasted Crawley. We gifted them all three goals by faffing around with the ball and not closing down quickly enough. Taylor got caught on the ball for the first, then we didn't shut play down quickly enough on the edge of the box and topped it off with, what appeared on instant viewing and I haven't seen it back since, to be chocolate wrists from Pym in dealing with the shot. The second we didn't close down around the top of the box and the third Law and Boateng got p!$$ing around with the ball instead of delivering a cross and then when the ball got to the top of our box again we didn't shut the scorer down.
The two very short spells proved what could be achieved if we zipped our possession about but we are to content in knocking the ball sideways and backwards with very little penetration. It was, and very often is, like watching City under Tisdale. Great when we're at it but very ponderous and frustrating when we're not. Some of this is bought about by not having players with any pace about them in the side and, as far as I'm concerned, leaving Ryan Bowman isolated all of the time. Matt Taylor has to take responsibility for this. He continually plays the ineffectual Lee Holmes who has no pace and continually slows our game down when we do look like we're beginning to get up a head of steam. He leaves Lee Martin on the bench who is totally the opposite. Ryan Bowman has to have a partner to make his work fruitful. He wins plenty of ball both in the air and on the deck and causes enough problems when he doesn't but never has anybody around him to capitalise. The nearest players are ten/fifteen yards behind him. Get Matt Jay in the side to play around him for the rest of the season and then he needs to find somebody like Curo next season, quick and nimble who will feed off of Bowman. Taylor said he was going to get us playing with a running game and how often have we seen this? Very rarely is the answer. Carlisle and Notts County spring to mind ate beginning part of the season, MK more recently. Because of this we do not put teams to the sword like we did then as the opportunities allow. Port Vale should have been stuffed by four or five yet we made hard work of getting two. Crawley, even at three up, would have crumbled had we continued the second half the way we started it when we did actually look like we were going pass and move quickly with penetration. It isn't good enough and we do not get our ideas in order then we are going to blow our chances of the play offs.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

Why do people get so frustrated with sides that time waste - it’s part of the game especially away from home to run the clock down -

There is game management which all teams, us included do a bit of, and blatent time wasting which is unsportsman like behaviour and a bookable offence. If the referee booked the first offender you wouldn't get the rest. It has been allowed to become part of the game because referees are weak and do not manage the situation. If they got to grips with it in the first place, it wouldn't happen.

 

[antman]

The time wasting was frustrating but us giving the third goal away - all three were very avoidable - was more frustrating for me. I do think MT is still learning about which team plays best together and he just hasn't had all the players available long enough, especially in midfield, to have settled on a best eleven. We're lucky we still have time to sort it out but the playoffs are very achievable. I'm still very happy overall even if there have been too many days at home this season where we haven't focused well enough to stop the opposition and get a hold on the game. Very much think the manager is doing a good job though and I'm surprised some people are so quick to criticise him when he's on a learning curve and not doing bad overall.

 

[grecIAN Harris]

The time wasting was frustrating but us giving the third goal away - all three were very avoidable - was more frustrating for me. I do think MT is still learning about which team plays best together and he just hasn't had all the players available long enough, especially in midfield, to have settled on a best eleven. We're lucky we still have time to sort it out but the playoffs are very achievable. I'm still very happy overall even if there have been too many days at home this season where we haven't focused well enough to stop the opposition and get a hold on the game. Very much think the manager is doing a good job though and I'm surprised some people are so quick to criticise him when he's on a learning curve and not doing bad overall.

Some things are painstaking obvious antman and, first season or not, should be being rectified. If you want to play a running game, then you pick players who can move. If a player is only capable of giving you one decent game in five or six matches then you don't pick him. When you're centre forward is doing his job but is getting no reward because the support isn't close enough then you get other players to play closer to him. This is basic management not rocket science.

 

[andrew p long]

Sadly the bad news is that it isn’t in our hands any more. If Forest Green win their next two games and Newport win their last four games then we won’t make the play offs , even if we win our of our three remaining games. A depressing place to be compared to where we were a few weeks back.

 

[IndoMike]

A few miscellaneous points:
1. Jake Taylor has had two shortened summer breaks already due to playoffs and been ever-present this season. If not physically knackered he might be mentally knackered.
2. It might be that Matt is over-achieving this season or under-achieving with the players that we have. Difficult to say.
3. I've said it before : if we couldn't get promoted with Watkins, JMT and Jack S in the team it's expecting a lot for our current team to achieve it.
4. Playing Law on the wing makes no sense. It has to be either Law or Boateng in attacking central midfield position, not both. Since Law is more likely to grab a goal i'd pick him to start.
5. For years now we seem to have been a slow-starting team. Remember the theory was that we had to suss out the opposition first (..meanwhile the opposition scores and wastes as much time as possible)? That's a load of carp. We have to go for it from the start.
6. Lets be honest : of course it would be great to be promoted but imo if we don't the silver lining is that the players can have a good rest and Matt can try to improve the team. Lets back the manager by signing a quality, guaranteed goalscorer at our level, even if it means coughing up 250k.

 

[benjisheps]

Exactly I was pleased to see that so Matt was entitled to expect they would perform as they had done against Port Vale.

Whether it was the 1.00 pm start or 26C (although it was the same for both teams) we were totally lethargic for at least the first 35 minutes. Crawley mounted attack after attack, although having only two efforts on target both of which ended up in the net, our defenders spent the whole time heading or kicking the ball straight back to the feet of the Crawley defenders and mid fielders for them to mount another attack.

We eventually woke up and managed to keep hold of the ball and get the likes of Lee Holmes into the game and Boateng missed a gilt edged chance blasting the ball against the cross ball with the open goal beckoning. The referee correctly played 3 minutes added on time due to the inordinate amount of time the Crawley players spent celebrating their two goals but they saw out the half without conceding.

Second half Matt brought on Lee Martin in place of Archie Collins and we looked a lot more positive. 50th minute and Ryan Bowman blasted an unstoppable shot past the Crawley keeper. This seemed the ideal time to score and for a while we had Crawley on the ropes and a few minutes later Bowman looked set to put us level with a bullet header brilliantly saved by the Crawley keeper. Indeed had that gone in the result would probably have been totally different.

We were on top but although creating a number of chances with headers and shots going narrowly past both posts were unable to find the net and Crawley resorted to gamesmanship with players feigning injury and anything else they could do to break up play and prevent us from building up any pressure.

We were still very much in the game until Nicky Law gave the ball away in mid field allowing Crawley to break on a counter attack which was poorly defended resulting in their third and decisive goal. City still looked dangerous at times with Lee Holmes crosses being particularly threatening but the Crawley defenders had now recovered their composure and although the referee played 7 minutes added on time we never really looked like scoring.

In summary although disappointing that Crawley decided, mid way through the second half, to resort to play acting they deserved to get the points.

Defensively we were poor with Christy Pym looking a little lost at times. Neither full back played that well and which ever league we are in next season we need to strengthen these positions.

Troy Brown had a steady game but Dara O’Shea was very much the pick of the bunch. Holmes had one of his better games. Taylor worked hard without contributing too much. Hiram Boateng was at his most frustrating playing at half pace and was a shadow of the player who was given the MOM award against Port Vale. Archie Collins was also well off the pace and there was certainly no surprise when both were substituted on the 69th minute.

Nicky Law was sound without being able to run the game as he has done a number of times over the season. The one plus for me was Ryan Bowman who as always worked his proverbials off and scored a true striker’s goal as well as being unlucky to see his well placed header saved by their keeper. He could yet turn out to be a really good signing.

At present it is still in our hands but anything but a win at Stevenage is likely to mean that if we are to make the playoffs we will need the likes of Carlisle, Newport, Colchester and Swindon, Newport in particular with having a game in hand, to drop points. Lose to Stevenage and they will leap frog over us into the playoffs and if other results go against us we could find ourselves finishing the Easter as low as 10th place and needing to win our last two remaining games to have any chance of finishing in the playoffs.

Decent match summary SB. I felt for the first 35 minutes we were really poor and just went direct and didn't connect more than two passes in a row once!! The 10 minutes before half-time and up until they scored their 3rd goal was much better and if we had started that way the game could/would have been very different. It's disappointing that yet again (similar to the Mansfield game) 2 out of the 3 goals conceded came when we were in possession of the ball.

One thing I would say is that although I do like Lee Holmes the amount of times that his cross hits the first man or the end product is lacking is way too much for me and I actually think this could be an interesting summer regarding what Matt T does here.

In terms of the season unfortunately I think our home form is going to cost us this year. We have won 11 games but lost 8, drawing 3. The only team in the top 7 we have beaten at home is MK Dons and we have lost to everyone else as well as losing to Macclesfield, Grimsby, and Crawley which just isn't good enough.

I still think Taylor has done a decent job with all the upheaval in the summer. The only main criticism that I have is that we didn't come out of the January Transfer Window anywhere near good enough which has also cost us! Bowman I think will be a good signing and has done well, as has Kane Wilson which we expected. However; Randell Williams (although I think could have potential) has hardly played, Donovan Wilson hasn't been good enough, and Jaden Brown apparently was a bust and is already back at Huddersfield.

All of our nearest rivals strengthened in January and held onto their best players and sadly we did not, which again I fear will ultimately cost us.

Hopefully Matty T can keep the bulk of the squad together and bring in some quality and steel to the team which is much needed.

Still hopeful that we may find a way to stumble into the playoffs but won't be too disappointed if we fall short as long as Matty gets it right in terms of recruitment this summer.