Gaffer bemoans wasteful behaviour
In what was a frantic, open and entertaining game, Exeter City were ultimately downed 2-0 at the hands of Newport County AFC at St James Park thanks to goals by Conor Washington and Harry Worley – and City manager Paul Tisdale was frustrated by the spendthrift display in front of goal.
According to the match stats, former City stopper Lenny Pidgeley was only called into action six times from 16 City shots – and Tis felt that while Newport were a strong opponent, Exeter might have gotten more out of the match,
“It’s a disappointing loss, of course,” said Tis. “They were an opponent that played very tough and fought for everything they got – fair play to them.
“We had the lion’s share of the passing, but it’s about what you do in the penalty boxes. You get judged on the execution of what you do – there’s no point saying ‘what if’ and ‘if that had happened’ or ‘we could have done that’. You get judged on what you do.
“We didn’t hit the target often enough, we didn’t cross well enough and we didn’t defend our six-yard box well enough.
“We started really well but we didn’t hit the target enough. I don’t care how you do it or how you create it, or whether we are winning or losing, whether it is sunshine, rain or wind – you’ve got to hit the target to score and we didn’t hit the target enough.”
And amongst his gripes from the afternoon was the collective execution of certain tasks that led to the goals – indeed both of Newport’s goals were somewhat disappointing in their manner, and in particular the first which came from a long-throw on the left-flank.
If nothing else, it will give Tis plenty of material to pick the bones from on the match DVD on Monday morning in order to scrutinise where things should have been tighter.
“I haven’t watched it back yet,” continued Tis, “but I have a feeling that I don’t think the players did what they were asked to do today. I’m not talking about how hard they worked or whether they passed it nicely.
“A lot of players showed that they are good players today, but it’s about the team being effective and productive and they have to do what I ask them to do. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll change it – but they didn’t do what they were asked to do.
“It’s not about whether players are on their game – it’s about whether they do the collective thing to get what I need.
“They got drawn into playing a game today which they enjoyed playing, but it’s about us having the effective and necessary variables in place to win the game.”