No room for error now it’s crunch time for City

Taylor acknowledges it’s ‘must win’ time for Grecians in League Two play-off chase

EXETER City manager Matt Taylor is not shying away from the importance of Saturday’s League Two clash with Newport County calling it a “must win” game for his side.

The Grecians are still in with a shout of making the end of season play-offs, despite collecting only nine points from their last ten matches, which has seen them win only twice.

Newport, in seventh, occupy the last of those play-off places and are three points ahead of the Grecians, but with a worse goal difference. With only three games to go after this weekend’s round of fixtures – against Grimsby, Bolton and Barrow – there is little room for error for the Grecians now.

“It’s a must win game,” Taylor said. “The table is obvious for everyone to see, they are three points ahead of us, but the goal difference is in our favour, so it is going to be a huge three points to play for. And with the amount of games left, it is definitely a must win game.

“We have to try and win and then we will assess it from there, depending on the circumstances, leading into Tuesday night.”

With three of their four remaining games to be played at St James Park, then Exeter will be looking to take full advantage of familiar surroundings, while their final away game of a gruelling campaign is at Bolton’s salubrious University of Bolton Stadium.

“We only have Bolton away and that is a stadium that should inspire you, no matter what your circumstances are,” Taylor said. “It is the best stadium in our league and probably the league above, so we are looking forward to going and playing at Bolton.

“I think it will be the first time for a lot of this group of players they will play there and then the other three games are at home, but you always have to back yourself in home games.

“We know what Saturday is all about, but Newport have the experience of having been there and done it in these sort of games. It may take one moment of excellence, one moment of luck, a mistake, or one bit of quality just to get us going.”

City go into the game after Tuesday’s goalless draw with Forest Green Rovers, the sixth game of eight that Exeter play during the month of April.

At the end of a tiring campaign, energy levels certainly seem low, which goes some way towards explaining their sudden struggle for goals. But Taylor is refusing to use fatigue as an excuse for his side to not be at their best this weekend.

“That is the hardest part at the moment,” he said. “We were unlucky with the timings of a lot of games that were called off in that mid-season time and ended up with a backlog of fixtures, but it would be a lot easier if we had a bigger squad and we had a lot of players to choose from - and in relation to what you want to do on a weekly basis in relation to the team,” he said.

“Some players have needed a rest, but we can’t afford to rest them at the moment, which is unfortunate. But I don’t want fatigue to be an issue this weekend.

“There was no real travel involved on Tuesday night, although it was still two and a half hours to Forest Green! But not the usual six or seven hours and a night away in a hotel.

“We are not using that as an excuse and I don’t think fatigue will come into it. It will be a game for adrenalin and effort, for all out action, and for substitutes to make a real impact off the bench when needed, so I don’t think we will be looking to that this weekend, but it has certainly played a part over the last month or two.”

> Exeter City players celebrate one of the four goals they scored at Cambridge, but they have not won in League Two since that result