Taylor demands Exeter improve throughout XI
MATT Taylor has challenged his Exeter City players to take their frustrations out on Colchester United after seeing their 13-match unbeaten run ended by Oldham Athletic on Saturday.
The Grecians slipped down the League Two table to sixth place following a surprise home defeat against an Oldham side that they should really have beaten, especially after Randell Williams had given the Grecians a 12th minute lead at St James Park.
But City went away from the script and turned in a first half performance that Taylor said was not good enough as it allowed Oldham to score twice to take a half-time lead. Despite plenty of second half possession, the Grecians were not cute enough in and around the penalty box to break down Oldham’s stubborn resistance.
However, there is little time to wallow as City are back at the Park again tonight with Colchester United making their first return to Devon since Taylor’s side beat them 3-1 in June’s play-off semi-final, securing a 3-2 aggregate win.
“I watched their game on Friday night and they were impressive. Full credit to them and they are similar to ourselves in terms of the fact they have barely recruited. But for two or three players, they are exactly the same as ourselves and given youth a chance.
“They have some good players left over from last season, certainly their front four, so we know what to expect. We have played each other a few times over the recent months or seasons, but it’s a game where we want to get back on track.”
Despite that unbeaten run, the Grecians have been conceding too many goals of late, but Taylor refuses to point the finger of blame at just his defence. He was unhappy with many aspects of how City went about their work on Saturday and wants a vastly improved display tonight.
“We have been behind too often,” he said. “I can look at my back four, but it’s not just my back four, it’s collectively all over the pitch and it felt like our full-backs could never get tight enough to their wingers and their wingers rolled out with possession every time in the first half and rolled inside as well. Then we were struggling as a unit.
“In terms of positions on the pitch, I want to play an aggressive game and press the ball, but if we can’t defend one-v-one, and come out on top, like we showed on Saturday, then I will have to look at different ways of approaching the game.
“Maybe we just sit back a little and get compact as a team, but we should have that in abundance, the way we work the lads day in, day out in training. It allows us to be aggressive with our press.”
As a former defender, City’s record of only two clean sheets in 13 league matches this season is not something he is proud of, while the manner in seeing an unbeaten run that stretched back to September 19 galled the Grecians boss.
“It happens and you are going to lose games of football,” he said. “I have said before about where we are as a team and that is showing in terms of, not just the results, but the goals we are conceding and the amount of work we are having to do to get back in the game, or ahead in a game.
“You always point to the back four when you concede goals, but that wasn’t just the defence on Saturday. It was all over the pitch.”