Match Thread Away V Exeter City Saturday 6th February 1.00pm (with Poll)

Apologies if I have missed it, but does anyone know why Rowe and Evans were missing, and when are they likely to be back?

 

I think you are spot on about Clarke and Evans. They both offer a lot more when defending, as opposed to young wingers like Crankshaw and Stevens will

 

He never saves a penalty, even in penalty shoot outs he doesn’t stop any.

 

You knew this was gonna happen. Every time we won or drew he's been posting about 'wait for the negativity after we lose'. Might as well not bother debating today's game.....

 

A negative but not a total disaster. For all their possession I didn't think Exeter really created much. Especially in he first half.
Defensively we looked fairly solid apart from FCD who was isolated and Exeter took full advantage of that.
We started brightly in the second half but dropped off. Unlike Southend or Barrow though Exeter were going to take full advantage.
You sometimes learn more from a defeat than a victory. Lets hope T&S can get the right reaction for the Scunny game (if goes ahead).

 

Finn certainly gets bullied at times and his learning the hard way but perhaps his co defender's could help him out a little better with more effective positioning once he gets beat.

 

Cooke was the only player above a 6 today. Another motm performance.

 

It’s a good illustration as to why we’re better taking our time before making a decision over T&S. 1 bad result doesn’t undo the good work they’ve done, but why make a decision based on 8 games when we can decide over 15, 20, 25 games? We’ll get a better idea of what they’re about the more we see this side.

More poor than good today, but it happens. The slightly broader concern for me is that I thought we were average (at best) against Barrow too. We need a better performance in the next game.

 

Park knows what he’s doing I should have known not to bother biting. All I’ll say is I expect to see negative comments when we lose and play well, just as I expect to see positive comments when we win it’s the nature of the beast. In my line of work my boss has criticised me when I’ve underperformed and praised me when I’ve exceeded expectations. Obviously there are a few who will be ott negative but there’s the same few on the other scale as well. Hopefully the managers explain to the players that isn’t acceptable and we improve for Tuesday.

 

To counter attack like we were set up today requires a team defensively that can soak pressure and crosses, have composure. Given the individuals we have I do not think they are good enough at this time to depend on them playing this system. As for Hossanah does he offer as much defensively as FCD.
Scoring two goals away we should have got at least a point.
Yes when we have the likes of Rowe, Cook and Gray back we can set up to our strengths.

 

Id like to a constructive appraisal by Park of the game but it won't happen because that doesn't suit his agenda

 

You have to ask why we went long ball when we had two wide men in the starting 11, I thought Crankshaw showed he could be a danger but Stevens unfortunately offered little.

Most believed there would have been a another midfield player come in for Clarke and that would be the only change from last weeks starting 11, but to lose Rowe, Cook,and Evans (just as he was looking to get back into his stride), was always going to be a big ask three new faces up front, but yes lets see why those lads did not play and we go again Tuesday night maybe ?.

 

I'm guessing Tuesday won't go ahead barring a huge change in the weather forecast.
Time to recharge the batteries I guess.
Debutants did okay and showed certainly in the first half we now process pace at last going forward.

 

First of all we had the entire forward line missing and the reserve centre forward secondly we were playing a good team who are up there with games in hand. This was always going to be a tough test. We lost this game Mainly because Exeter played well going forward and we were under strength. And then we’re beaten by a very unlucky penalty. On top of that the pitch was a mud heap very difficult to play the interactive football we have been doing in midfield lately. But people like you just love negativity quiet when things are going well in your element at the first sign of a negative result

 

They were similarly under strength. Williams and Randall missing, Law having just departed. There’s no need for toys out of the prom - today showed that we still have work to do. We’re a work in progress for a top 7 push. They’re not.

 

Harsh to blame Kian, only came on for five minutes. Another totally negative post, as predicted.

 

Randall was on the bench and came on and they had Willmot for Law

 

To counter attack like we were set up today requires a team defensively that can soak pressure and crosses, have composure. Given the individuals we have I do not think they are good enough at this time to depend on them playing this system. As for Hossanah does he offer as much defensively as FCD.
Scoring two goals away we should have got at least a point.
Yes when we have the likes of Rowe, Cook and Gray back we can set up to our strengths.

 

Its the result i expected, with so many of our players out from the front line. I am actually amazed we managed to score twice.
If we could have just defended better, should not be conceding from free headers at a corner.
Lets hope we get some of the 8 missing back for the next match.

 

There was no single person to blame. Plenty of sub par performances today, some more than others, and T&S are still coming to grips with the changes made to the squad. We should probably embrace the the rest of the season as a learning ground for next, then focus on whats needed to make necessary changes in the summer.