Exeter City manager Matt Taylor highlighted the positives from the Grecians’ display despite being held to a 0-0 draw by Grimsby Town.
City were forced to defend well in the first half before having a flurry of chances to go ahead after the break, but they were unable to find the all-important winner at Blundell Park.
Following the match, Matt said: “It’s a point gained. They put us under a bit of pressure in terms of possession and field position in the first half, but we withstood it pretty well. Second half we created enough chances to win the game, obviously it’s disappointing not to score but I’m pleased with the clean sheet."
Matt was also keen to praise Town’s setup as they made it difficult for the Grecians to create, particularly in the opening 45 minutes.
“We’re never going to have 90 minutes our own way,” explained Matt. “You come away to Grimsby, who are on a good run of form, a good team, who are organised and play in a certain way. They’ve got every right to have a bit of possession and put us under pressure, without actually hurting us.
“Obviously, Christy made the save onto the post, but apart from that, they’ve not really got behind us or got in the spaces to threaten us. There wasn’t too much wrong at half-time, we knew the game would pan out that way. We just needed to make an extra pass and have a bit more quality on the ball and we did that in the second half and the opportunities started to open up. On another day, they go in.”
Even though the Grecians missed chances on the day, including Pierce Sweeney’s penalty which was saved well by James McKeown, Matt is confident that on another day those chances would be converted to goals.
He continued: “They’re good enough players to take those opportunities. Pierce has been our penalty taker for a couple of seasons now, so he’ll miss one now and then, he keeps on stepping up and practicing. I’m sure he’ll want to take the next one. Jake breaking into the box showed our intent towards the end of the second half.
“It’s a clean sheet away from home against a team which are in form, and we’ve created enough chances to win that game. We were only missing a goal today, it would’ve been the perfect away performance.
“The lads are disappointed in there which shows you where that group is at the moment. Sometimes when you don’t take your chances you have to rely on a clean sheet to get you a point, and we did that today.”