Exeter boss reflects on derby day draw
Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale applauded his players for the way they performed during the 1-1 draw against Plymouth in the Devon Derby at St James Park.Liam Sercombe hit an opener in the first half following a spell of bright play by City. However Argyle began to exert pressure after half-time and Tis was happy with the spirit the team showed after being pegged back by Joe Lennox in an emotive derby.
“It was the sort of game we expected really,” said Tisdale. “It was high-tempo, slippery and not much passing. The game was probably going to come down to mistakes or missed chances.
“The players didn’t do badly today by any stretch of the imagination. It was never going to be a particularly fluid game – it was going always to be scrappy.
“We did well in the first half. We had pressure and kept the pressure on for 30 seconds or a minute, and had a couple of waves and phases of play where we put pressure on the opposition.”
Despite the even nature of the game, the City manager acknowledged that the game might have taken a different turn had they converted the chances that they had carved for themselves.
“You always want more, going in at one-nil,” continued Tis. “But the opposition are entitled to give it a go in the second half – and they did, and put pressure on us. Still, we had the chances today to score more than one.
“On another day, with those chances we had, I’d like to think we would have scored them. Scot [Bennett] had two very good headers and Jamie [Cureton] had two very good chances in the box that you would normally expect him to take.”
With Argyle buoyed by Lennox’s equaliser, City reacted well to stem the tide and create some opportunities of their own to win the match. Paul reserved praise for the Grecians as they sunk their teeth into the fixture, and they were arguably unlucky not to take the points after Maxime Blanchard was sent off.
“I’m sure [Plymouth] thought they could go on and win the game themselves, but the team responded well. You can’t override human nature. You’re a goal up and they know how much that means to everyone here, and the team wanted to hang onto that.
“Sometimes you’re powerless on the bench to affect how the flow of the game goes. But we responded well, and I can only ask the team to respond to those moments in the game.
“I’m sure their fans are going to be slightly happier than ours. But it’s a point, it’s not the end of the world.”