Exeter saw a switch of formation this weekend, enforced but successful as they beat Swindon Town 3-1.
Manager Paul Tisdale revealed the change was due to only having certain players available, but having made the change there’s now a chance it could be used this weekend against City.
“There is always a couple of angles towards any decision on the tactics and team pattern,” he told Devon Live. “One of that will always be the tactical analysis of the game and your opponent but it will also be the availability of your own players, who’s fit, who’s not and trying to get the most fluid and cohesive performance out of the group of players you have.”
The clash is vital for both sides as we hunt for a play off spot and the winner will give themselves an increased chance of featuring in the end of season lottery. Tisdale is no stranger to the top seven, having guided Exeter there last season, only to lose at Wembley. Whether he is able to mastermind a return is down to the availability of his players this weekend.
“A lot of it will come down to the availability of Harley and Holmes, for example, and obviously Jordan Moore-Taylor and Troy Brown are still out the side through injury, so a lot of it will come down to who’s fit and who’s not. Craig Woodman went off again, he obviously missed a couple of games through injury last week, he came back into the side on Saturday and came off again so maybe came back a game too soon.”
Meanwhile, Exeter’s Jayden Stockley has been bemoaning his luck ahead of the long trip up to Lincoln. He feels he is due a penalty after being targeted by defenders for a bit of rough treatment. He’s growing frustrated at the lack of fouls given his way, especially after going down in the box after an aerial battle in the first half of this weekend’s win against Swindon.
He told Devon Live; “Anywhere else on the pitch, it gets given – it almost feels like I’ve got to get stretchered off to get a penalty.”
Is he sounding off the first shot in referee-based mind games for the weekend? He did pay tribute to his manager’s tactical change prior to the game, giving Danny’s video analysis a bit of spice, no doubt.
” It was nice, it was good to be in and around players to link off you and when the time is right to sit in, then we can do that, too. We played a couple of formations and I thought, especially towards the end of the first half and the second half, it went really well. It’s good to be adaptable, Tis’ teams have always been adaptable, we change formation quite a bit but we’re used to it. Not every game is the same so it’s nice to have that in the locker.”
Exeter have lost one in the last seven, that defeat coming at Morecambe, where City forced a draw this weekend. They had won just three of the previous nine matches ahead of the weekend and Stockley was delighted to address the mini-slump.
“Form and momentum is such a massive thing and we need to start winning games here at home – we had a little bit of a blip, a few results didn’t go our way, so it was massive to get three points. I thought we dug in really well after conceding a goal, you saw the spirit from the boys to bounce back straight away. It’s easy sometimes to drop a bit deeper or slump and get frustrated, but we were on them straight away – we knew we were at it, there might have been a tiny bit of a slow start but you can’t fault the endeavour of the boys and how they reacted.”
Exeter are five points clear of City in fifth place. The game will be billed as a six-pointer, but sadly we’ll only get three if we win, as per the rules of football. Irrespective of the result they’ll go into Bank Holiday Monday ahead of us, but if it is two points we might catch them, eight points and we can look forward to another trip to Forest Green next season.