We won’t get fooled again (we will)
Hugely questionable substitutions by Lee Grant in a very disappointing second half gave a competent, disciplined Exeter side the impetus to grab a deserved point to take back to Devon.
The late equaliser, which inevitably came from Town’s left flank where overloads had already increased ominously, put the spotlight back on a manager whose reputation had slightly recovered following wins against some of the lesser lights of the division and a hard-fought, if streaky, point at Lincoln on New Year’s Day.
A very kind schedule had produced 10 points from 12, and it was expected that an eminently achievable 13 from 15 would potentially provide a solid base for a good second half of the season, even if the challenges ahead are decidedly stiffer.
With the Grecians on a decent run themselves, the game was far from a foregone conclusion, but with an hour gone a routine victory seemed well within the grasp of a team rather boringly seeing out a game where the opposition’s threat was a little toothless, despite lots of possession.
However, the visitors grew in confidence as the half progressed, while Town offered less and less and simply didn’t cause enough problems after a reasonably bright start to the second half.
Despite having three well-executed goals, with two very good strikes by each side and a tap-in following a clever move following a good run by Aisha, the first half was a little stodgy and marred by a confusing refereeing performance, featuring possibly the first ever example of a player penalised for heading a raised foot.
Neither side had offered much in the first 15 minutes, with a Harness effort perhaps causing the Exeter keeper more difficulty than it deserved, but the same player struck with an excellent effort not long after, with the goal coming a little out of the blue after 18 minutes of rather uninspiring fare.
An even better strike a few minutes later saw the Devonians draw level. Picking up the ball, turning, and shooting in one movement, Cole delivered a superb, unstoppable shot past a helpless Nicholls.
It was the visitors’ first sight of goal, but it was difficult to resist the temptation to applaud a spectacular finish.
To their credit, Town regrouped and had their best period of the game, culminating in a Radulovic tap-in following some decent Castledine play and an Aisha run down Town’s right.
Despite the setback of conceding again, Exeter had a quiet competence about them which translated into dynamism twice, giving Town advance warning that, of the teams they were expected to knock over in the festive period, they would prove the most difficult.
Ironically, the first of these dangerous breaks was thwarted in the box and led to Kasumu delivering possibly his only positive contribution of the game, with a thrusting burst towards the visitors’ goal, culminating in a ball to Radulovic who was unfortunate to see his shot take a slight deflection when goal-bound.
Just before half-time, Exeter’s second dangerous break of the half brought a very good save from Nicholls with his feet and, just as he had done at Lincoln with a smart stop, safeguarded what, at the time, still seemed to be three points.
Going in at the break with the lead, on the back of an average but respectable performance, Town needed a solid second half to finalise a hugely successful Christmas and New Year schedule.
Regrettably, the requisite level did not transpire. A brief early flurry subsided as Exeter grasped an initiative which was eventually to bear fruit following a series of poor substitutions by Lee Grant.
He was forced into the first substitution when Roughan picked up an injury in the first half and didn’t reappear after the break. Feeney, his replacement, had an uncertain 45 minutes, which incorporated a ridiculously loose attempted header back to Nicholls that Wareham nearly punished.
However, with Town’s attempts on goal restricted to a poorly executed lob from the halfway line—when May was given the ball by Exeter overplaying—and forays which rather fizzled out on contact with the penalty area, the game changed with Grant’s ill-advised changes.
Removing Gooch seemed particularly egregious, as he had kept Exeter’s right relatively quiet with well-timed challenges and interventions. Grant, however, repeated the experiment of switching the naturally right-biased Sørensen to the left, which added to the increasing problems being faced.
Nor did it seem very smart to take off Radulovic, who had done a reasonable job up front, and put another small forward, Charles, on to play alongside May.
Ledson, whose recent discovery of a modicum of form was rewarded with a place on the bench, did reasonably well in a game which inexorably swayed towards the away side as the minutes passed.
In the 89th minute, Exeter exploited their right-hand side again to feed a ball into the box which was deftly flicked in by Wareham to secure a merited point.
It is possible to overreact to a setback of this sort, but Grant’s ineffective management in a hugely forgettable second half – getting most of the decisions he made wrong – and the rather pathetic blaming of the players post-match, is a problem which isn’t going away.
The level of goodwill Grant earned in the recent good run of results was always puddle-deep, given the weakness of the opponents beaten, and his reversion to the mean in this game, with decisions which appeared odd in the moment and terrible in hindsight, sets him back again ahead of a tough round of fixtures.
The hierarchy, and others, will argue for patience, but that had all but run out before the knocking over of a few hapless opponents and, in any case, they were the ones who set expectations high for this season. A precarious fourth place, with rivals behind having played fewer games and a top three finally showing signs of consistency, should not be a comfort to them.
Happy New Year
townreports 