GRECIANS SPOIL TISDALE RETURN
EXETER City manager Matt Taylor was thrilled with his team as they turned Paul Tisdale’s return to St James Park into a nightmare with a brilliant victory over MK Dons.
An electric start saw the Grecians go 2-0 up inside 17 minutes with goals from Nicky Law and Jake Taylor, but Joe Walsh’s header straight after half-time reduced the arrears.
The outstanding Law finished things off with Exeter’s third as their fans enjoyed a richly deserved win over their former boss.
“We attacked the game,” said Taylor. “We attacked it from the first minute, it was high energy and we pressed them as high up the pitch as we possibly could.
“We know the pitch wasn’t in the best condition, so we tried to press them into as many errors as we possibly could.
“We got on the front foot and got a foothold in the game and got our reward with the early goals and we looked a really good team from then on.
“It was disappointing to let them back into the game with a set piece, but we tweaked the shape after that and got an extra body in our backline and got control back.”
Exeter went in front in the seventh minute when Jonathan Forte’s cross was turned in from close range by Law to give Exeter a dream start.
That dream start got better after 17 minutes when captain Taylor beautifully took down a poor clearance and placed a delightful finish into the bottom corner from 20 yards.
Law should have made it 3-0 when he burst into goal after some lovely stuff form the Grecians, while a David Wheeler header that went high over the crossbar was the closest MK came to scoring in the first half. However, the Dons made a strong start to the second half and pulled one back with Walsh’s thumping header after 48 minutes.
Chuks Aneke headed another effort straight at Christy Pym for MK and Wheeler was off target with another effort, while Forte fired straight at Lee Nicholls for Exeter.
Exeter went 3-0 up when Law took advantage of a horrendous mix-up involving Joe Walsh and Nicholls and poked the ball into an empty net to complete a superb win.
MK Dons boss Tisdale was not happy with his side and told his players they must do better.
“Poor day,” he said. “I am not quite sure what our lads expected to be honest, but they didn’t expect what they got in the first 20 minutes. I am disappointed with them.
“I had a moment to contribute and I contributed at halftime and we did something about our ineptitude in the first half. I like to think I did my bit at half-time, but we capitulated with a dreadful error for their third goal.
“We are in League Two, it is dreadful conditions to play football and they have to adjust to that very quickly because that first 20 minutes... to say it was poor is an understatement.”