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Re: Exeter thread
Well, that escalated quickly.
Thought our key weaknesses today were shape and fitness. The latter of which I can only attribute to certain players ageing and others playing in their first true campaign of competitive football. Even taking that into account the break should have given us a decent rest.
Exeter are a very good side and played between our lines with ease due to our static positioning. Tisdale outclassed Beattie tactically even though his dress sense was comparable to a park flasher.
I can't see the argument for playing two up-front in the modern game. We leave a gaping space between our midfield and forwards with Joyce/Murphy pulled miles apart and wingers too happy to hug the touchline. In order to retain the ball when we're not playing well we must sacrifice a man up top to play someone behind the striker. We didn't need both Gray and Webber today - we needed a midfielder with appetite and the aptitude to work between the midfield and forward line. Someone like Will Hatfield would be perfect.
Overall I don't believe we necessarily deserved anything out of the game but were unlucky not to snatch a draw with the amount of chances we had. Mingoia showed a great attitude and would be my man of the match on the red side. After as bad a start as you can ever have, perhaps reducing the impact on GD to -1 was the best we could get.
Responsibility on Beattie today, improvements to make.
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