Match Thread Home V Exeter City - 14/11/2020

You are obviously old enough to remember one of my favourite films, Kelly's Heroes, where Oddball is constantly chastising Moriaty for being negative.
Having followed City for so many years I have experienced so many ups and downs. Consequently I try not to get carried away or let myself get too depressed about the way things are going. That doesn't mean I am happy with things at the moment and I am ambitious for us but like I said "we are where we are".

 

Good choices, I am on Robinsons Trooper at the moment.

 

I think you're right I thought of the two second half Rory was struggling at times and fouled him to stop him as he came into the game far more, ironically there was only two fouls according to the BBC website all the first half.
I thought the first 9 minutes Exeter were by far the better team which you would expect from a team on a run like theirs, we scored a great goal against the run of play and I thought the next 10 minutes we more than matched them until Watts poor defending, their tails went up and they had us on the rack until the inevitable the second goal was conceded, our second was amateur defending, half time 2 - 2 they shaded it but always looked capable of adding to their goal tally.
For me second half was pretty even, not disappointed with the result another game were we could take a few positives but we do look susceptible at the back, some posted they thought French was poor where as I thought more attacking options came from his side, this isn't a criticism but Woody as yet hasn't hit the consistency of last season so lets get the our injured players back and see where we go.

 

As should Exeter's first ?.

 

All goals should be cut out before 'insert clause here' lol, welcome to football, goals are scored because nobody is anywhere near perfect.

 

Fair assessment. Things to be encouraged by, but plenty to work on and fix / improve.
What concerns me most is that it’s the same things that jump out as needing work every week.
Not enough goal threat and we are our own worst enemies at the back with panicked, unconvincing defending and individual errors.

 

Andy Kiwomya commented with regards the space left behind French when he advanced forward saying A O'Connor should have moved across to cover the area but he still thought he was playing central defender.

 

Thats a pretty fair write up. We didn't do enough to win today and they were on balance probably the better side over the ninety minutes. But there are positives, especially the spell before their first goal where we were ripping them to bits. Just hamstrung by a defence that always looks like it has a couple of mistakes in it and a strike force that isn't potent enough. A shame we couldn't have got to their two central defenders who looked susceptible to pace. Something we don't have.

 

I'm far too long in the tooth to get depressed by football. But I always try to look at things rationally and draw conclusions from what I see or know. Today, I thought we were lucky to get a draw but glad we did. Generally, I haven't much faith in Stuart, for reasons I couldn't possibly disclose, but I hope for the best whatever. There's a difference between someone who's congenitally negative and someone whose opinion is based on rational observation of known evidence. I like to think I'm the latter.

 

I know with what we have to come back many will say they wont turn our season around (although I try not to write anyone off before Christmas) Novak has shown he can score, Evans will add his experience and if we can keep Zeli fit which is our biggest problem the lad has loads of ability and should cause defender problems in this division, Guthrie has show little so far so being the eternal optimist he can only improve.
We go to Salford unbeaten in 3 (yes we have to start somewhere) and if Salford are as ordinary as they were against Bolton last night we could make it 4 without defeat.

 

Will need everybody scoring regularly if our defenders keep making basic schoolboy errors week in week out

 

Did you say Cooke was poor first half? Our best player by far first half. What game were you watching?

 

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/league-two/12132549/bradford-2-2-exeter


Here ya go guys/gals, how did the lad Williams not put that late header away after he's got a run on the lad Staunton.

Having watched their second I thought the lad who scored was fouling Staunton ?.

 

I did. Watch their goal where he just let his man walk into the box to set up a goal. Failed to track his man as you heard Stuart bellowing from the stands. Otherwise what did he do?
Clarke was the best player first half.

Edit: apart from the great pass to set up Clarke

 

Thought it was a decent game and exceeded my expectations as I thought we’d lose comfortably, they are a good team at this level and sadly atm better than us. But credit we matched them, and if we didn’t concede a pathetic first who knows what might have been. It was an interesting game to have after beating poor side in Southend and Angels to see if we had turned a corner, against the better sides this season, in the main Newport and Harrogate we were never in the games the same can’t be said for today. So in an aspect I think we have, only to becoming a mid table side on reality but it’s an improvement on how we looked 3 week ago. It’s a shame because all we’d need is a half decent forward, a player who could protect the defence in midfield and a centre back who could organise the rest and was competent and I think we could challenge. It’s small margins at this level from top to bottom and we’re just on the wrong side to have a go. I said at the start of the season for us to be a success we’d need one of the youngsters to be a key breakthrough player and it looks that way, as I don’t think we’ll bring anyone in to improve us.

 

I think we all try to be rational mate but I think we all say things that later we reflect on differently. I too am not sure about Stuart but I'd like to see him given time whilst at the same time Julian's eventual replacement supporting him but at the same time telling him that the club expects success.
Stuart's first stint he was very inexperienced, the 2nd time too much interference, now he has to produce. I just think we need to stop chopping and changing manager. So put him under pressure but give him time.
I think he would have liked to move more players on in the summer but some were still under contract and with the covid situation were reluctant to move.

 

Err. No.

 

Absolute bollocks man. If thats what you think of Cookes first half performance then i can't help you. Apart from the goal Clarke was quiet first half.

 

The question was asked of Keefly.