Exeter City FC

Exeter City manager Matt Taylor was left frustrated as his side slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Grimsby Town.

The Grecians dominated the game in terms of chances but were left to rue a couple of errors which led to the Grimsby goal.

Following the match, manager Matt Taylor said: “The keeper’s played well for them. The two goals we’ve conceded, especially the second one having got back into the game because we worked so hard to get that equaliser. We just needed a little bit of control just for the next five minutes and keep ourselves in our minds nice and steady then we would have gone and won that game. Mistakes happen in football, both goals are poor mistakes from our point of view, but we’ve created enough chances to win the game two times over.”

Having had 30 shots and dominated possession, Matt felt that though Grimsby defended well, his side needed a bit more quality in terms of shots and the delivery of crosses.

“We can give credit to their goalkeeper and their defenders, but we still didn’t have quite the killer instinct,” explained Matt.

“It was always going to be difficult when they went down to 10-men, you have to work the ball, shift it, and create crossing areas on the pitch. We didn’t quite have the players to deliver it with quality.

“We missed Lee Holmes at times today in terms of his delivery, but having said that, when you create that amount of chances you expect to win a game. It’s brutally disappointing, they’ve got to pick themselves up now in terms of new year’s day, we’ve been on a good run and we didn’t quite see it coming to an end like that.

“Sometimes you get outplayed and you can accept it, but I think they had two shots on goal and one of them was a penalty. It’s disappointing when you concede goals like that, but you’ve got to be pleased with the amount of chances that we created.”

Matt also praised Alex Hartridge who made his full City debut at left back as he replaced a rested Craig Woodman.

Matt continued: “Alex Hartridge made his debut today, a solid performance but he still has areas to improve on. I know what Alex is capable of and I want him to believe in himself as much as we believe in him.

“It’s a case of integrating him into the group slowly, it was also a case of looking after Craig Woodman and Dean Moxey to an extent. In terms of the four games in quick succession it would have been too much, so I wanted to keep the balance of Dean and Dara at centre half. We’ll see how the bodies are going into new year’s day and then we’ve got a bit of a break to reset the batteries.”