Exeter City FC

Exeter City manager Matt Taylor praised his side’s start to the second half as City beat Northampton Town 3-2 at St James Park.

The Grecians fell behind midway through the first half when Charlie Goode sent a half volley into the bottom corner, but Randell Williams equalised before half-time and then City controlled the first half hour of the second half and built up a two-goal lead with headers from Aaron Martin and Alex Fisher.

“I was really pleased with a 25 to 30-minute spell in the second half,” said Matt. “I thought first half it was, probably, a messy game where both teams where cancelling each other out to a certain extent and they got ahead through a set-piece and we got back in the game from a moment of good quality from Randell (Williams) and then second half I thought we were more like ourselves.

“We played much better football, we had more control of the ball in better areas of the pitch and we started to look dangerous and scored two really good goals off the back of that. They both came from set-pieces, so a lot of credit goes to Dan Green and the rest of the coaches for that. However, they are a good team and they came back at us in the last 15 minutes or so. They scored a poor goal from our point of view, but a good goal from their point of view to getting back in the game and then we held out relatively comfortably and still had a few opportunities ourselves.”

After an even first half, it was a very impressive spell from City against an in-form Northampton Town side. So, what did Matt change at the break?

“My message for them at half-time was that there at had to be a platform, whether that was the top end of the pitch in terms of Alex (Fisher) and Ryan (Bowman) holding the ball up or winning more first contacts, or the central midfielders or the centre-halves it was a collective issue,” he said.

“We just didn’t have an ounce of control in that first period when it was messy so we could get the ball on the floor and then we could hurt them and we could work our way up the pitch. We knew there would be a little bit of space and we did work ourselves up the pitch and then the goals have come off the back of set-pieces. They are a seriously good team, with a lot of good players for this level, so we are really pleased with that game.”