Grecians manager reacts to York City draw
PAUL TISDALE lauded a point gained after Exeter City drew 0-0 with York City at St James Park."It was a point gained," Tis said. "We started with no points and we got one. I'm not delighted with today's points tally, but I'm pleased with the performance.
"I think my overall emotion at the end of the game is that I couldn't be more pleased with the way we played. I thought it was as good a performance as we've put in at home over ninety minutes for a long time, in the mode that we want to play. We weren't polished today; we didn't quite get into the right areas and make it pay. Every team has a different route to goal, and we put ourselves into the right situations today, but didn't make good on it.
"It took us about half an hour to get a hold of the game, and I thought that the last twenty minutes was when we were most likely to score that goal. That was a 95% performance. When you play against a team like York, with the way they set up, you run the risk of a last-minute free-kick. Ryan Harley and Manny Oyeleke were brilliant today, though they both gave away dangerous free-kicks towards the end. It was a nearly performance, but one I'm very pleased with.
"Manny has suddenly come to the fore with two very impressive games in the last week, while Jordan Tillson looks like he's played there for years. We're beginning to build a squad, and with the new signing Joel Grant having arrived on Friday, we have competition for places, and I'm not saying we are perfect yet, but we're certainly on the right tracks."
The Grecians lost defender Christian Ribeiro to injury early in the second half, with Tillson taking the Welshman's place, but Paul insisted that Christian had battled on for twenty minutes after sustaining the knock in the opening seconds.
"Christian hurt himself within the first twenty seconds of the game," he said. "He possibly should have put his hand up and come off straight away, but as a player it's very difficult to come off after thirty seconds. He's hurt his groin, and we're going to get an update about that one on Monday."
Next up for City it's the eagerly-anticipated Capital One Cup Second Round trip to the Stadium of Light to play Premier League Sunderland.
"I haven't given it much thought just yet - you'll have to forgive me, but I was thinking about York City up until the full-time whistle. It will be a great opportunity for us, and it's a nice problem to have. We're certainly not viewing it as a distraction to us, and it's one that we want to win. It's a long way away from home, but one of the targets for me over the first few months of this season is to improve the squad, and that isn't just restricted to signing players, it's about introducing players to allow us to rotate.
"We rested David Noble against York, and the likes of Tillson and Oyeleke have come in. Hopefully we'll have David Wheeler and David Noble back for Sunderland, and we'll just look to play our football in the way we do."