Ellison at the double to derail Grecians

EXETER manager Paul Tisdale was frustrated with his side’s inability to fight back against Morecambe as the Grecians suffered their first league defeat of the season.

Two second half goals from Kevin Ellison, included one just 58 seconds after the half-time restart, meant Morecambe secured all three points for the first time this term.

And Tisdale admitted that the reaction of the players after the break left him exasperated.

“My main instructions were to be as good as we could be in the first five minutes and make sure we got back in control as we were in the first half, but we didn’t do that,” he said.

“I was disappointed with the first goal because it was a minute after halftime and we had possession on the corner of their box that we contrived to fritter away.

“The lad then had a free header from eight yards out which is disappointing from a defensive point of view.

“What disappointed me most was that we finished so poorly.

“I made some changes and the result was we didn’t pass it as well, we lost it every time we got into the last third, our ball retention was useless and we gave away as many free-kicks as we could.”

The visitors had the better of things in the first half, though Morecambe went closest to breaking the deadlock as the outstanding Jack Sampson had a header cleared despite the ball seemingly having crossed the line.

John O’Flynn hit the woodwork for the visitors at the other end before the break, but they soon found themselves behind as Sampson’s cross was nodded past Artur Krysiak by fan favourite Ellison.

The winger, who was making his return from a hamstring injury, then sealed the win as he latched onto another Sampson ball to lob the advancing goalkeeper.

Only a Craig Woodman clearance off the line denied Ellison the match ball, but manager Jim Bentley was still rightly pleased with his side’s display.

“I’m happy, but it’s only one game. It’s a clean sheet and there’s plenty of positives,” he said.

“We got the three points, which is what we wanted, and now we move onto the next game.

“I haven’t been pleased with certain aspects of our game and we wanted a little bit more from them. We proved in pre-season what a good footballing side we can be.

“If someone comes and plays football against us we’ll give them a game. If someone comes and gets amongst us we can’t feel sorry for ourselves and we’ve got to earn the right to play football.

“We did both here and it’s pleasing but as I say it’s just one game.” To comment on this match go to http://boards.footymad.net/