Ten Years of Tisdale

Look at the smartly dressed, MICHAEL JONES takes a detailed in football’s top 92 second longest-serving manager

WALKING out of St James Park, home to Exeter City, after a 1-1 draw against Newport County in February, I both admired and could see the problems with what I’d witnessed.

It was clear that Paul Tisdale’s side aim to play neat and fluid football, but it was also painfully evident that the reason such style is seldom seen in League Two is because it does not often garner results.

So you have to give credit to Tisdale, the second longest-serving manager in the top four divisions behind Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger, for sticking to his principles and, at times, overcom- ing the odds. Behind his sharp suits, vast array of headgear and smart shoes is a man who is deeply reflective, almost philosophical.

“I find it difficult to think if I’m shouting from the touchline,” he says.

The internal cogs of his mind, mechanically turning whilst the turbulence of a match is but metres away from him, have allowed him to transform Exeter City from a club languishing in the Conference to a mainstay of the Football League.

In his ten years at the club, he’s guided the Grecians to two trips to Wembley, successive promotions, eighth in League One and, most recently, a 2-2 home draw against Liverpool, resulting in a replay at Anfield.

Yet it’s a hard job keeping a club with limited resources in the Football League.

Owned by the supporters’ trust, Exeter have always faced an uphill battle in staying competitive in a footballing world becoming increasingly diluted by the rich – make no mistake, it taints the lower leagues, too.

It is perhaps this underdog spirit that feeds the prevailing ethos at the club to do it ‘the right way’.

Whilst those in the boardroom help the club to engage with the wider community, Tisdale is