Exeter City News

Are we Missing Matt Oakley?

Hants

It does seem that our results suffer when Matt Oakley is missing. If we look at Exeter City’s results since Oakley joined on loan in October 2011 to now, we can see a marked difference.oakley_feat

  • With Matt Oakley: P52, W22 (42.3%), D12 (23.1%), L18 (34.6%).
  • Without Matt Oakley: P54, W11 (20.4%), D15 (27.8%), L28 (51.9%)

A significant difference with a doubling of our win rate with Matt Oakley. Of course this is just a numbers game, and no account is taken of tactics and other player selection. If we look at the City’s last 7 games, which Oakley has missed through injury, then it’s not very good – LWDLLLL. The only win being the 4-0 win at Scunthorpe. We had a similar set of results after he left us in November 2011 – DDDWLDLLD. Then we can look at the end of last season, when Oakley was injured while Exeter were challenging for promotion. Without him the our final set of results were WLLLLDLL, and no promotion!

Matt Gill has been brought in on loan to cover for Matt Oakley, as explained by Paul Tisdale when bringing in Gill:-

It’s come with Matt Oakley being injured – he’s going to be out until well into the New Year. It has transpired that his ankle injury is not a simple one.doherty_matt_gill

He (Gill) is one of the best defensive midfield players we’ve had, in terms of his positional play and his talking – it was just right for him. People will look at his ability to control and pass the ball, but his stand-out ability for me is his defensive play.

Clearly Matt Gill is no Matt Oakley. He doesn’t have the same skill level, in particular those relating to finding space, linking in the likes of Alan Gow and tactical awareness. Matt Gill brings other skills such as defensive qualities and some needed grit and determination.

Unless the team can find a way of coping with Oakley, then it could be a long winter for Grecian fans.