The Grecians handed Matt Jay his professional début today. Butterfield returned from injury and got a place on the bench.matt_jay

With recent home defeats to Newport County, Hartlepool and Burton Albion, and a consecutive set of 4 defeats in League and FA Cup games it was important that Paul Tisdale’s team were able to arrest that poor run and importantly to get a result in front of the home fans. It was not to be.

Despite a bright start from Exeter, Southend took the lead on 12 minutes through Woodrow, and it seemed that the Exeter players didn’t know what to do. On 29 minutes Southend sealed their victory with a goal from Hurst. For the rest of the first half the City players just went through the motions.

The 2nd half saw a better performance from the Grecians, but Southend were able to lock out the game and return to Essex with all 3 points.

Exeter City 0 Southend United 2
01 Krysiak 17 Bentley
04 Bennett 02 White
03 Woodman 03 Coker
29 Grimes 18 Leonard
06 Coles 15 Kiernan
05 Baldwin 06 Prosser
07 Sercombe 14 Hurst
35 Gill 12 Atkinson
27 Jay 33 Woodrow
25 Parkin 11 Straker
11 Davies 08 Timlin
Substitutes Substitutes
02 Butterfield 01 Smith
10 Gow 04 Laird
15 Moore-Taylor 05 Phillips
19 O’Flynn 09 Reid
20 Nichols 10 Corr
30 Pym 20 Njie
32 Wheeler 21 Payne
Attendance 3547 of which 255 from Southend.
Ref: Steve Bratt
Goal Scorers
Exeter City
Southend Utd Woodrow 12′ Hurst 29′
Substitutions
Exeter City O’Flynn on for Davies ’56 and Nichols on for Jay ’56. Butterfield on for Gill ’65
Southend Utd Corr on for Woodrow ’67, Laird on for Hurst ’78, Phillips on for Straker ’87
Discipline
Exeter Yellow for O’Flynn ’83
Southend Yellows for Woodrow ’61
Match Stats ECFC SUFC
Possession 55% 45%
Shots 13 9
On Target 5 7
Corners 3 3
Fouls 12 12
Yellows 1 1
Reds 0 0

Exeter City’s Match Report – http://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/fixtures-results/match-report/?matchid=3631426&tcmuri=922651

Cheggers Pics: /1/exeter%20city%20vs%20southend%20lge%20two

Quotes

Tisdale said after the match

We can’t make signings, that is not something we are going to do, I need to look at players making strides within the squad.

I made a decision to play Matt Jay because I think he deserved to play and he was wonderful. I thought he was our best player in the first half. He got his selection off the back of his performances in training and Under-21 games and he did extremely well.

We’ve become disconnected as a group and that’s my job, and they have to respond and I’m pretty sure they will respond. We have to go through these moments every now and then and this is one of them.

We were dreadful in the first half. We were 2-0 down and the players gave it a go, but that’s not what we want to be doing every week.

I think we are at a point now where we have just lost three league games in succession and we need an assessment of how we are playing, how the players are performing individually and maybe it is time I need to have a look at things.

I’ve been very good with the players; I’ve been very respectful and I’ve kept a core of the group that have played whatever, and have played more or less every game they have been fit; they’ve had a good run at it, and they’ve come off it.

Read more on this on the Club’s website here.

Exeter’s Scot Bennett had this to say:-

Enough of us know we’re not playing up to the standard that we know we can. A few words have been said in the changing room – it’s a bit private in there, but we’ve given ourselves the kick up the backside that we need.

Hopefully can go onto next week and have a good week in training and push on at Rochdale and get three points, as we’re in a state where we need them.

Southend’s Phil Brown speaking after the match said:-

Nothing is won in November but it’s fantastic that we’re finding some form as we come into a busy period. What is important is that we’re keeping clean sheets and we’re scoring goals at the other end, that’s eight without reply now.

The confidence is through the roof, that might change at some point but it’s up to the coaching staff to keep that in good spirit.

Cauley scored a real striker’s goal but I don’t think he’ll remember much about scoring it to be honest.

By Hants