I think I enjoyed the final minute of this game a lot more than the preceding 92! We started the game well and were unfortunate to concede when we did but fair play to Eliot in winning the penalty. Pity he then went and missed a sitter. We didn't threaten as much in the 2nd half, but we looked pretty solid. Lee Brown had a good game and looked to get forward when he could, but we really do need another striker this month - we can't expect JJ to score all our goals from midfield for the rest of the season!. All in all a very pleasant afternoon - it felt like Spring out there today.
1st half we were the better side. couldnt believe richards sitter that he missed. i was embarrassed for him. the amount of times i see/hear us control the game and then 9 times out of 10 we concede and go on to lose, i expected exeter to take the lead! i thought our heads would drop but was an immediate response. within 2 minutes of conceding we attack from kick off and win a penalty which we score from. 2nd half was a bit more even and both sides had their fair share of dangerous moments. but last 5 mins we huffed and puffed and we got the winner in injury time which was deserved. happy days. few stats.... we have a 100% win percentage this year (2014). we went 89 games without winning after falling behind. now we have won 2 games on the bounce after falling behind. we have won 3 home games on the bounce. we have gone 7 games unbeaten at home. not lost at home since 19th october 2013.
We just about deserved that win, though neither 'keeper had much to do. Had Richards' awful miss early on gone in I really think we could have gone on to a comfortable win. O'Toole hasn't completely won me over but how can you argue with the fact that he keeps scoring vital goals?! Harrold worked his socks off, things didn't run for Harrrison; and everyone else put in a good shift.
harrold was my man of the match and was glad he was awarded it. harrison started brightly, he set up the richards sitter. but he drifted from the game and just looked lost. he should have gone off 10/20 mins earlier as was looking a liability. i too aint convinced by o'toole. i think he has under performed this season even though he has scored goals and is our tip scorer. another silly booking today.
I'm glad JW rested some players because we are gonna need them for the Cup match, as we are gonna be tired come the second half.
The problem with O'Toole is that the fact he goes forward a lot exposes the midfield, and that's why Exeter looked quite strong on the counter attack. Ollie Clarke (who was a close second to Harrold for MOTM) was left to do it all himself. But hey, he scored the late winner so I'm not complaining! Also Baldee, the missed sitter came at 0-0, before the pen.
It did indeed - that's why I don't do many match reports!! We could do with playing another holding midfielder to help out Ollie when JJ bombs forward, but that may be too defensive an approach at home.
'We could do with playing another holding midfielder to help out Ollie when JJ bombs forward, but that may be too defensive an approach at home.' That could be Clucas or Woodards when either or both is/are fully fit.
issue is having 2 holding midfielders will make us too defensive. the will be the keeper, back 4 and 2 holding CM's leaving 4 players left which will be wingers, attacking midfielders and strikers. at home we need 2 up front in my opinion. we beardsley came on at crawley and yesterday to make it 2 up front we scored and looked far more dangerous. at home we need to be more attacking and have 2 up front. away we can be a bit more defensive and use the counter attacking threat if we had more pace in the team.
I was pleased that the Gas seemed to start where they left off at Crawley; carrying the game to Exeter. It was great for those first 15 minutes seeing the team driving forward as a cohesive unit. I much prefer sides that pass and move, nothing complicated just simple football. We made Exeter look like a very poor side. So what changed the tactics? Why did the team revert to hoicking long balls up field to Mattie and Ellis? Ellis had looked the cat's whiskers when he was supported in the forward flowing unit, but for most of the rest of his time on the pitch, he was fending off two sometimes three defenders with no close at hand support. He's a light weight young man and he reminded me of the early day's of Harold Jarman who used to get kicked into the stand if he used his skills to beat the defenders. God knows how much ugly verbals from his opponents he has to put up with!! I just wish that instead of reverting to the long ball our midfield had continued to drive forward into the huge spaces that Exeter left for them. Of course for the last ten minutes we did just that and nicked a well deserved win. But please JW get them to play the way they started for longer periods of the game cos two teams playing volley ball ain't particularly impressive to watch and might be the reason we have scored so few goals this season. Other than the goals, we only had one shot on target. Just get up there and have go. Take a leaf out of JET's book and 'Give it a go!! You never know!!' By the way IMO the best player on the pitch second half was Exeter's no:10 Alan Gow. He just drifted through our defence with silky skills.
I think tiredness showed in our second half performance and Exeter rapidly wised up to Harrison's threat and put an extra man on him. We do seem to be taking a pop when we can - it's just that our shooting ain't up to much. The pleasing aspect was that we kept going right to the end, and of course we came back from a goal down for the second time in a few days, after going 89 games without doing so! An improvement, but if we were good enough to maintain a ball-on-the-deck cohesive attacking display for 90 minutes, we wouldn't be 89th in the league!
Agreed BB. But what annoyed me was that even with yards of space to carry the ball into our lads still preferred to hack it forward
Yep, that's got to change. Poor old Harrold worked his arse off as at times he was our only outlet - daft really, when we have a couple of forward-thinking, decent full backs in Brown and Smith.
think these last 2 games would have given the players new found belief that they can actually win a game if we fall behind. this would have been a big confidence boost for them.
