Troy Brown says Exeter City players have to keep battling going into EFL Trophy match
Troy Brown says Exeter City players can’t afford to feel sorry for themselves going into this evening EFL Trophy match against Oxford United.The Grecians are without seven first team players through injury for the match at the Kassam Stadium and were dealt a further blow on Saturday when a controversial penalty was given against them in their 1-0 defeat at home to Portsmouth.
To add further insult to injury, City were denied a late penalty of their own when Michael Doyle blocked Ollie Watkins’ goalbound shot around the post with his arm.
Brown says the players cannot afford to dwell on those injustices though.
“We are disappointed, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” he said. “There are lots of games to play. There is another game on Tuesday and another league match on Saturday so we just have to keep the faith and keep the performances going.
“I feel, on Saturday, we gave a good account of ourselves against a good side; we had chances to win the game as well. So we just have to get back to the drawing board and get on to the game on Tuesday.”
City defended well against Portsmouth on Saturday and could count themselves unfortunate not to come away from the match with a point. So, can they use the anger they feel from some of the decisions that didn’t go their way on Saturday as motivation going into the match at Oxford?
“Personally I just try to keep at it anyway; keep battling, keep fighting and keep defending,” said Troy. “As a team we want to string some results together. The performances are not bad, so if we can keep stringing these performances together then hopefully the results will come.”
The match at the Kassam Stadium kicks-off at 7.45pm this evening. The match will be 90-minutes long with no extra time. If the game ends in a draw after 90 minutes, both sides will pick up a point but a penalty shoot-out will take place for a bonus point.