Paul glowing after consecutive wins
Grecians boss Paul Tisdale was understandably delighted with an away win at npower League Two leaders Gillingham.In a see-saw fixture, City had to battle back from conceding an early goal to eventually triumph against a Martin Allen side that has been lauded for its resilience this year. And the Exeter manager was pleased with all aspects of the performance, including his players’ liveliness with the ball and their resistance without it.
Tis said: “To go a goal down in the first five minutes and come back as we did – we were really tough, creative and ballsy. A fantastic performance, I’m really pleased.
“The first half was a bit open and a bit bitty and we weren’t particularly cohesive. But as soon as the second half started we were so much on top for that first ten minutes territorially, I think you could see how much the wind was playing a part.
“The game had everything. It had real guts and determination for us to defend and keep the ball out of our net; it took a fantastic strike from their left-back to get the equaliser which went like an arrow; then to miss a penalty and score straight afterwards – it just had everything.”
A superb free-kick by Alan Gow and another two for the collection of Jamie Cureton earned the points at Priestfield, but Tis was particularly keen to commend the team for refusing to be out-battled and making good decisions around their own box.
“We were very solid. We defended our set-pieces well, which is something we’ve worked on and in the last two games we’ve done that extremely well. It took an amazing strike for them to score their second goal.
“The first goal was irritating. It wasn’t down to defensive concentration, it was down to a grey area between Danny Coles and Artur [Krysiak], and their midfielder nipped in. But defensively we were strong again today and the defenders didn’t try to do too much – they just did their job.”