Grecians boss Taylor bemoans bad luck

EXETER CITY manager Matt Taylor was disappointed to draw against Northampton Town as a 90th-minute Andy Williams header denied his side victory at St James Park.

“I thought it was a good game of football and I was pleased with our performance,” Taylor said. “For large parts, we were where we needed to be in terms of our performance levels and the commitment and quality we showed.

“Things aren’t quite going our way at the moment, but I was delighted with the performance and if we play like that every week, we will win far more games than we lose.”

The Grecians made a good start to the game and got the opening goal after 16 minutes when Jake Taylor latched onto a pass from Lee Holmes and smashed the ball past David Cornell.

The lead did not last long, however, as Northampton hit back to level after 26 minutes. Sam Hoskins led a counter-attack and saw his shot saved by Christy Pym, but as Exeter cleared another effort off the line, the ball ricocheted off Billy Waters and went in.

Holmes drilled a low shot wide as Exeter got back on top and they went back in front just before halftime, although there was some debate as to who got the goal.

Craig Woodman’s cross was headed goalwards by Jayden Stockley and after the ball cannoned off the inside of a post, it wasn’t clear if it had crossed the line or not. Nicky Law was on hand anyway to put the ball into the net to make it 2-1.

Exeter had chances to kill the game off and paid the price for not doing so when a corner in stoppage time was headed into the net by Williams.

Northampton boss Keith Curle was pleased his side rescued a point, which extends his impressive start to life in charge at Sixfields. “It was another battling performance, good attention to detail and the set-piece earned us a point,” he said.

“I was disappointed with the two goals in the first half, we looked a little bit tentative how we started the game and there was a lack of aggression. I thought we were half a yard short getting in some of the challenges.

“In the second half we were more aggressive, we had better movement up front, retained possession and we put the ball into better areas.”