Grecians boss looks ahead to Luton clash
EXETER CITY manager Paul Tisdale insisted that he is not expecting any sidelined Grecians to return to the fold in time for Saturday's visit of Luton Town.The Hatters visit St James Park on Saturday for this season's festive fixture, and City's first match in two weeks after the postponement of last week's trip to Morecambe.
"We have a number of players making good progress with their recovery. How many will be fit for Saturday? We're unsure if any of them, but we're hoping that the we'll have the majority of them fit by the New Year. I don't think that we'll have any more players back into the squad this weekend. In the grand scheme of things, you have to be open-minded about the game being called off last week, but with our current form, we were disappointed it was off.
"When you have a very good game, you don't want to come off the boil, so a two-week gap is a long time. That's not some excuse going into this weekend; we're more than happy with the players available, and that's the point of having a squad. It is what it is. We sign the players and train them, but it's down to them to go out onto the pitch and do the business."
Luton parted company with manager John Still on Thursday, leaving the Grecians with some new last-minute preparations to make.
"There's two parts to this conversation," Paul said. "One is that I'm very disappointed for John - I've known him very well from ten years of playing against his teams. He's a very proper chap and is liked by most people who've played against him. I'm surprised, as while Luton haven't been in the best of form, they are still in mid-table and are within two or three wins of propelling themselves into a positive position. Then I think about how this plays on us - this happened to us earlier in the season, when Newport changed their manager - you just don't know what kind of effect it'll have on the team. It might not be any particular technical point, but it's very hard to be able to predict what will happen on Saturday.
"Especially when you have good players as Luton do, any side can turn it around, as we all know. We're just doing our best to be ready for anything."