The Opposition View – Exeter City

In the wake of yesterday’s wasted opportunity at home to Exeter, here are some views on the game from the Grecians’ manager Paul Tisdale and a few of their fans.

“That was a top performance and a great result,” said Tisdale in his post match interview.

“It’s the first win I’ve had here as a manager and to do it with ten men for an hour-plus was great.”

Commenting on the scramble that followed Joel Grant’s weak penalty, the Exeter boss said: “The ball was bundled in the net and the linesman saw some sort of infringement with the hands. I’m more than happy for that goal to be disallowed – at that point you think, well, maybe this is going to be our day.”

“I think what stood out today was the nine outfield players who played that hour with a man down and gave absolutely everything.”

Asked for his opinion on Cureton’s red card, Tisdale said: “I believe Jamie kicked at him and if he did then he deserves his red card and I can’t complain about it.”


The Exeter fans were delighted at our generosity and had nothing good to say about our performance.

The following extracts are taken from exeweb and the Football Forum.


flakey pasty wrote:
‘Tisdale’s Tactics today were spot on again. Particularly keeping the same team on until the end – changing things could well have disrupted our rhythm. To win away from home with only 10 men for more than half the match took some real guts by our boys.’


Roger Munch wrote:
‘Were the Exeter tactics right… or were Wycombe’s tactics wrong?’


Mackster wrote:
‘Another inept team who didn’t ask any questions of us. We couldn’t have had an easier day at the office. A great result and joy in our hearts to walk away with three points with ten men, but I don’t see how anyone can tout it as a tactical masterclass. The best you could say was Tisdale’s tactics were fine and didn’t need any tinkering even with 10 men, because Ainsworth was utterly clueless in how to go about winning this match. They were so poor that it begs the question how they’ve won 5 of their last 8 games?’


ecfc_1960 wrote:
‘Odd game. The referee was the stand out person with strange decisions for both sides. No complaints about the sending off of Jamie Cureton, stupid behaviour by our leading scorer. Fair result. We were the better team, though we struggled to penetrate once we got to the opposition box, indeed our goal was scored by a Wycombe player.’


SDRighton wrote:
‘Wycombe badly need to keep their Hause in order!’


grecianfaniow wrote:
‘If we were ok at home we would walk this league.’


nwallace wrote:
‘Can’t we be like the Harlem Globetrotters and just play away games?’


Ashford Grecian wrote:
‘We thoroughly deserved the win against what I thought was a pretty poor Wycombe side. Curo’s red was deserved for a stupid kick at a player with the ball in the keeper’s arms and play dead. The penalty was poor, Artur saved and it went back to the taker who bundled it in but the lino had his flag up straight away. We weren’t great, but better than our opponents and a great win with 10 men for the second half.’


007 wrote:
‘What a totally fabulous save late on by Artur. But I’m afraid his kicking constantly brought howls of laughter from the home fans and tbh it wasn’t just bad it was shockingly bad.’


crocks wrote:
‘Wycombe were simply the worst ‘home’ side that I have seen and even with all the help that the ref could provide, they still couldn’t score against us. At half time I thought if we got one we would win, as was proved. And even then, the goalie and defence completely messed up to gift us an OG.’


Northants Grecian wrote:
‘Shocking impression of a league game to be honest. Wycombe were even worse than us. If they have been this poor all season, I can see why less than 3.6k bothered to attend on a bank holiday.’


AndrewP wrote:
‘I thought Ainsworth (player manager) was a disgraceful example of a football professional. In the linesman’s ear all game, then on the final whistle, stormed onto the pitch ignoring Paul Tisdale’s advances for a handshake. Shocking team all round, glad we got the points off them.’


Eric the red wrote:
‘Cureton’s stupidity could have been costly. I was sat right where he kicked the defender and it was a pathetic act of petulance. The penalty was the turning point, it was another poor challenge to give it away but it was an even worse effort at a kick, it looked a poor decision to disallow the follow up but the ref was poor all game. In all it was a good result from a poor game between two poor teams.’


Thames Valley Red wrote:
‘That was a poor advert for football. We got out of jail and were lucky.’


Next Game: Wycombe v Chesterfield – Sat 5th Jan – 3.00pm