Exeter City v Newport County Matchday Thread

[denzil]

Who said I'm satisfied, Mike?

Well you don't often come out Rae and say you're not, do you !

 

[RaeUK]

Fair point, denzil. I prefer, in the main, to keep my own council but have a tendency to post positively as and when a little balance is needed. Which doesn't, of course, paint the whole picture. I have been known to dance differently in the stillness of my mind.

 

[On the up]

How bloody frustrating was that. We could have been two down through nobody elses fault but our own but then we could have been two up by half time. Quite what Nicholls was doing after he robbed matey of the ball, God only knows, and Harley was unlucky with his free kick right at the end. Having got our noses in front with a cracking finish for Tillson, who we were quite surprised to see come out for the second because he'd been that bad, I thought we'd start to take control but we didn't. Newport were there to be had but instead we became more and more ponderous going forward and more unsure at the back, especially the usually reliable Moore-Taylor who couldn't read the ball in the wind at all. Eventually we allowed ourselves to be pressed further back because we couldn't get rid properly and conceded with some p!$$ poor marking. Well, I say marking......... six yards out with nobody within five yards of Boden.
The tools are within the club to be better than we performed today but they need to be in the right place. The biggest issue is from the midfield forward today as the back four picked itself. Holmes is tricky winger, play him out there where he is at his most effective. Wheeler isn't a striker. He is another player who is at his most effective playing wide. He reacts too much to what happens up front rather than anticipating and gambling on what might happen. Nicholls should have been the one playing either beside or(probably better) just off of Stockley. If you had two wingers playing properly then the amount of times the ball was on to be slid in around the back (and I'm only talking ten yard passes not twenty/thirty yard through balls), especially in the first half was no odds to nobody. We have the players (although I do think we need somebody to replace Nichols, maybe Olly Watkins is the answer but I haven't seen enough of him to say) and we are good enough if players are played in the right positions.

Good summary of the game and performances. We are currently an unbalanced team. Wheelers poor touch and lack of anticipation means he can only be effective out wide. Our lack of mobile quality centre midfielders is a major problem for us. We're awash with Tricky but slowish wingers, and ageing centre mids. Tilson tries his hardest but just doesn't have the skills or pace. ( albeit struck his goal well today). Seems like Tis has created this squad and is now having difficulty in making it effective in games. Some of our best games have been when we've Had Nobes in the centre and Ribs out wide. Let's hope we have those options soon. The seasons pettering out, but there are some good teams to play in the run in.

Come on City, stick together and put in a performance on Tuesday.

 

[Swanaldo]

We've performed poorly against lowly opposition for a couple of games, must be time to play like Brazil and stuff Oxford 3-0 on Tuesday.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

We've performed poorly against lowly opposition for a couple of games, must be time to play like Brazil and stuff Oxford 3-0 on Tuesday.

More than likely Swanny - Oxford are going through a bit of a poor run as well at the moment

 

[iscalad]

More than likely Swanny - Oxford are going through a bit of a poor run as well at the moment

That's us buggered on Tuesday then.

 

[Swanaldo]

I heard next year we're getting "Consistently Inconsistent" embroidered on our shirts.

 

[richard_portland]

Pretty disappointing stuff. Would have been raging at full time had we not pretty much blown it in the away games. Looking at the table now we still only seem about eight points off so we could have been a lot closer.

First half was fairly entertaining with Newport hitting the post twice when it looked like a goal was looming, nicholls completely messed up a one on one and had several other chances but the finish didn't match the approach play and Harley clipped the bar. Olejnik made a decent save. Second half started well with a good strike from Tillson but we faded as it went on and offered little more going forwards. Newport got on top, the wind didn't help us but neither did our play and tactics. Terrible absence of marking for the equaliser and had we lost we couldn't have complained much.

If we don't raise our performance on Tuesday , Oxford might teach us a few lessons. Knowing city we will probably win.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

14th & 10 points off the play offs - but it's ok because we're only little old Exeter with a lovely community spirit

 

[Hants_red]

Tisdale's post match interview https://audioboom.com/boos/4206499-paul-tisdale-post-newport-county-afc-home