Exeter City v Northampton Town - League 2 Playoff Final at Wembley Stadium

[east_mid]

Actually there was a foul on Bowman that should have been a second yellow. Wharton got away with that big time.

There was.Terrible decision by the ref .All he got was a last chance warning and that's when we should have targeted that player before the ref forgot about him..He couldn't have survived another late tackle.

 

[Steve Moran3]

Normally I might say if decisions had gone our way it might have been different. The fella who chopped down Williams who was already on a yellow could easily have gone. The grab around the face leading to Moxey getting a red he could also have gone. And their 3rd goal ginger was offside and came back to receive the ball the Lino missed (although Bowman was offside first half when he went through but didn’t manage to shoot.) But tonight we were so bad - even if all that had gone our way I still think we’d have lost easily. A night to forget.

 

[geoffwp]

I was not excusing our abysmal performance Geoff. Just reminding of a clear error from the referee.

I know you weren't Al. I'm still fumming over that 'performance' just like Fred still fumes about Liverpool.

 

[Legohead]

IMHO, the season was lost when MT signed Ajose. It was a huge gamble that failed badly. Had Ajose scored say 5 or so goals getting us 5 or so more points, we wouldn't be having this thread tonight.

Agree a bit. There are also a couple of other mitigating factors. One is the Jekyll and hyde nature of the players' effort and application to games. One week we're awesome and the next look disinterested. I don't get it. More consistency in our professionalism and attitude would have seen us garner a few more extra points needed. How come we were superb against Argyle then next up put in a stinker at Bradford? This was a common theme. It's like we had a leadership issue on the pitch. We're like a League 2 Arsenal. Nice to look at most of the time but no spine or backbone when it matters.

The other factor is goalkeeping errors of which there have been many from both keepers and also defensive mistakes of which there have been many. Three play off games and not one clean sheet. It's not acceptable.

So whilst Ajose is sitting pretty picking up the money, it's not entirely his fault.

 

[PeteUSA]

I was not excusing our abysmal performance Geoff. Just reminding of a clear error from the referee.

Well I didnt see any "clear errors" from the referee. I thought he had an excellent game.

 

[GhostofAlanGow]

Most disappointing for me was the gap between MT's rhetoric about 'attacking' and the actuality of his team selection and tactics.

On the big decisions he opted to play safe and to combat the opposition's threat, rather than looking to present them with problems.

Playing both Jake T and Atangana before Collins smacked of wanting experience and solidity, plus feeling loyalty to the former.

Also, I'm sure Fisher was there for his physicality rather than because he presented a real threat.

Like Tis, when push came to shove Taylor went for what he knew, who he trusted as safe hands and what he thought would counter what he most feared.

It was a line up and tactics which looked to blunt the opposition rather than take the game to them.

I wonder if this defensive set up also transferred to the players and how they thought/set about about the game.

 

[Alistair20000]

Well I didnt see any "clear errors" from the referee. I thought he had an excellent game.

Oh dear. Look at the incident again.

 

[Avening Posse]

Must be time now to build a new team around the younger players who have already emerged, albeit with 3 or 4 old heads, and the rest from the emerging youth. I personally would not mind if this resulted in us "finding our way" next season, but being fantastic the year after. MT has used a lot of the money that the club had from previous sales, and it will not last forever. He managed the youth, so knows what's there, so out with the Moxeys and in with the Sparkes etc etc UTC

 

[arthur]

Normally I might say if decisions had gone our way it might have been different. The fella who chopped down Williams who was already on a yellow could easily have gone. The grab around the face leading to Moxey getting a red he could also have gone. And their 3rd goal ginger was offside and came back to receive the ball the Lino missed (although Bowman was offside first half when he went through but didn’t manage to shoot.) But tonight we were so bad - even if all that had gone our way I still think we’d have lost easily. A night to forget.

Bowman was onside

 

[Exehausted]

I've just got back from watching it at a friends house, so I'm sure that my thoughts will have been said many times by others, but here goes anyway. I did worry when I saw Moxey, Richardson and Atangana in the side, I would have preferred Parkes, Sparkes and Collins. Even then I still thought that we would be competitive and really give it a go, but straight from the off you could see we weren't up for it. After just 90 seconds you could see we just didn't have any fight. They got us in a choke hold and never let go. Thank goodness for Jonny Maxted. I didn't blame him for any of the goals and he kept the score down in the first half. How Pete can say he's a duff keeper I just don't know. Yes he nearly got a clearance wrong but it was a shocking pass back to him. I didn't see Matt's interview but I did hear Lowe. I know I will get stick for saying this, but his summing up was spot on. "Northampton were really up for it and Exeter never got out of bed". The only small positive is I only had a ten minute drive home instead of 3 hours!