[Devongone]

Paul Tisdale is a good manager.

He always likes his teams to play a bit of football. He likes a bit of possession. And his teams will always keep trying to play their game ....... even when things are going wrong. If things click for them at some point in a game they can very quickly pull back from two goals down.

For twelve years there has been one way to beat Exeter - close them down, don't give them any space to play, hurry them and hustle them as if you were playing against a team from a much higher level of football. If you get in front, if you get on top, do it more and harder, tackle, work and press, make the pitch look small to them. NEVER think, we're winning, let's pass the ball about a bit, that's what they are waiting for.

Tactically it's dead simple, but week after week teams fail to do it. They look at Exeter's team, see they have very few stars and start wondering how come this lot are up the top. Fatal. Ruthlessly close 'em down. Whether we have anything like the players to do that is a moot point, but if we take the opposite tack and play their game, we'd have to be on our best day so far this season and they'd have to be on their worst.

One possible weakness is that their young keeper is good, but he does still have a mistake in him and he isn't all that big.

Their front two is a danger, they are both clever players at our level, but Wheeler would be the man to worry me, coming from wide. He has plenty of goals in him as well creating stuff for the strikers.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Don't worry Dev we will be prepared for them and I expect we will beat them by 2 clear goals. On the way home from work tonight I drove passed a camel on a bike and I am really looking forward to an evenings entertainment on BBC 1 with Children in Need.

[bluepooch]

I cant go tomorrow due to a wedding , Im a bit gutted as i think it will be a really good entertaining game with two teams who like to play the right way and on the front foot .I think there'll be a few goals too as we arent the best defensively to to current personnel but are quite capable of scoring and they are likewise.
I never predict scorelines but it could easily be 3-2 to us .Ill be back on to defend myself after the boring 0-0 !

[Dancingwilldoit]

I just witnessed a win !!!!! Positives - Anyon looked like a keeper, our defence was solid, we held it together well and actually looked like a team. Evatt was a man mountain and didn't do a thing wrong, my MOM. Negatives - Wiseman is a liability, He gets booked for time wasting then gives the ref a right verbal, gets a yellow then within 3 minutes he pulls their player back in full view of the ref and quite rightly gets another yellow and off. At least he misses Tuesdays game so hopefully no more stupid last minute giving the game away.
I'm happy, the camels happy and am actually looking forward to Tuesday - COME ON YOU BLUES.

[Devongone]

I'd gone mental anyway in my summary. I'd forgotten Wheeler, who has been Exeter's secret weapon for about three seasons got snapped up towards the end of the transfer window by QPR I think! I was thinking he'd just been out injured ....... AND his name's DAVID not Stuart. Stuart Wheeler IS a right-winger, but he used to finance UKIP to the tune of millions and now the Tories, looks as though he smokes 200 a day and is aged about 80 ..........

Evatt made the team of the day in the Football League paper, alongside CLINT HILL. That would be slow enough for Tranmere to sign to replace their fat b'st'd at centre back. Anyway the paper's Match Verdict on us is they think Jack is sorting us out and is "just the job". They still rate Exeter as promotion prospects but think we will survive because we had "the most stylish team" in the division under pressure for lengthy periods. Wow.

Now we have to stop Christian Doidge and Keanu Marsh-Browne on Tuesday, which I reckon is at least as tough a prospect. They are on a real run and the other Brown, who couldn't buy a game on loan for us last season, is playing every week at the moment.

First task is not to lose!

Second task is to find a wedding to send Pooch to on Tuesday night, which won't be easy.

Themaclad has warned us what to expect from Wiseman. Who on earth needs to pull Dean Moxey back? Decent player, but must be 32 and isn't Gboly Ariyibi either. Doing that at 1-0 up against table-toppers when you are carrying a booking? He's supposed to be one of experienced influences on a very inexperienced squad !!!!!!!

[Amelia Chaffinch]

"Second task is to find a wedding to send Pooch to on Tuesday night, which won't be easy."

[Dancingwilldoit]

I'd gone mental anyway in my summary. I'd forgotten Wheeler, who has been Exeter's secret weapon for about three seasons got snapped up towards the end of the transfer window by QPR I think! I was thinking he'd just been out injured ....... AND his name's DAVID not Stuart. Stuart Wheeler IS a right-winger, but he used to finance UKIP to the tune of millions and now the Tories, looks as though he smokes 200 a day and is aged about 80 ..........

Evatt made the team of the day in the Football League paper, alongside CLINT HILL. That would be slow enough for Tranmere to sign to replace their fat b'st'd at centre back. Anyway the paper's  Match Verdict on us is they think Jack is sorting us out and is "just the job". They still rate Exeter as promotion prospects but think we will survive because we had "the most stylish team" in the division under pressure for lengthy periods. Wow.

Now we have to stop Christian Doidge and Keanu Marsh-Browne on Tuesday, which I reckon is at least as tough a prospect. They are on a real run and the other Brown, who couldn't game a game on loan for us last season, is playing every week at the moment.

First task is not to lose!

Second task is to find a wedding to send Pooch to on Tuesday night, which won't be easy.

Themaclad has warned us what to expect from Wiseman. Who on earth needs to pull Dean Moxey back? Decent player, but must be 32 and isn't Gboly Ariyibi either. Doing that at 1-0 up against table-toppers when you are carrying a booking? He's supposed to be one of experienced influences on a very inexperienced squad !!!!!!!

Dev, whats even worse is that it was on the edge of their area with no threat. It was just mindless idiocy.

[Devongone]

On current form - last six games alone - we are mid-table, it is so far so good with Jack.

Anyway I thought I'd work out if the current rate of progress would be sufficient to save us. By my reckoning we'd end up on 49 or 50 points if this continues ......... which mostly would be sufficient to keep us out of the bottom two, but not always! You can go down on the low 50s.

So then I wondered if everyone played exactly to their form of their last six games for the rest of the season how the table would look, because that might give us an idea how we are doing relative everyone else. After 46 games the table would stand:-

1. Swindon 91 pts
2. Notts County 87 pts
3. Luton 85 pts
4. Accrington 84 pts
5. Carlisle 80 pts
6. Forest Green 78 pts
7. Port Vale 77 pts
8. Colchester 76 pts
9. Mansfield 69 pts
10. Cambridge 66 pts
11. Lincoln C 64 pts
12. Coventry 62 pts
13. Wycombe 58 pts
14. Exeter 56 pts
15. Newport 55 pts
16. Morecambe 55 pts
17. Grimsby 51 pts
18. Yeovil 51 pts
19. CHESTERFIELD 50 pts
20. Cheltenham 45 pts
21. Stevenage 44 pts
22. Crawley 36 pts
23. Crewe 31 pts
24. Barnet 23 pts

Now I'm sure no one will end the season on as few points as Barnet, but it does show that relative to our rivals the job Jack is currently doing even with our dysfunctional squad unchanged could actually save us (which I would have classed as a near-impossibility). If he could even keep this going until the January window it does provide some sort of hope, even if Forest Green give us a vegan pasting tomorrow night ...........

---

I'd gone mental anyway in my summary. I'd forgotten Wheeler, who has been Exeter's secret weapon for about three seasons got snapped up towards the end of the transfer window by QPR I think! I was thinking he'd just been out injured ....... AND his name's DAVID not Stuart. Stuart Wheeler IS a right-winger, but he used to finance UKIP to the tune of millions and now the Tories, looks as though he smokes 200 a day and is aged about 80 ..........

Evatt made the team of the day in the Football League paper, alongside CLINT HILL. That would be slow enough for Tranmere to sign to replace their fat b'st'd at centre back. Anyway the paper's  Match Verdict on us is they think Jack is sorting us out and is "just the job". They still rate Exeter as promotion prospects but think we will survive because we had "the most stylish team" in the division under pressure for lengthy periods. Wow.

Now we have to stop Christian Doidge and Keanu Marsh-Browne on Tuesday, which I reckon is at least as tough a prospect. They are on a real run and the other Brown, who couldn't game a game on loan for us last season, is playing every week at the moment.

First task is not to lose!

Second task is to find a wedding to send Pooch to on Tuesday night, which won't be easy.

Themaclad has warned us what to expect from Wiseman. Who on earth needs to pull Dean Moxey back? Decent player, but must be 32 and isn't Gboly Ariyibi either. Doing that at 1-0 up against table-toppers when you are carrying a booking? He's supposed to be one of experienced influences on a very inexperienced squad !!!!!!!

Dev, whats even worse is that it was on the edge of their area with no threat. It was just mindless idiocy.

It does make me wonder why it was a bookable offence. It's unsporting and stupid, but it is not dangerous and does not prevent a goal. Okay it's gamesmanship to slow a game down, but equally it gives a losing side a free kick to get the ball forward and perhaps shove a defender forward to create danger.

If you got booked for that in Italy and Spain, no one would be available - they'd all be out on five bookings. But then I've never understood why when a foul in the penalty area is punished by a penalty the offending player is sent off. Okay if the foul is dangerous, but it can't be described as professional when it actually improves the attacking team's chance of scoring can it ?........ if you understand the game that is ......