Taylor demands a response from his City squad
MATT Taylor has never been as animated as he was on Saturday evening, following Exeter City’s exit from this season’s FA Cup and in the wake of that disappointment, he has demanded three league points in tonight’s League Two clash with Bolton Wanderers at St James Park.
The Grecians went down to a 2-0 defeat to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, but while there is no disgrace in losing to higher league opposition, the performance of his team really angered the City boss.
Post-match, Taylor was highly critical of his team and felt too many players stopped giving their all. “I didn’t like what it turned us into,” the Exeter boss said. And now he expects a reaction against Bolton.
“I have some serious decisions to make with us moving forward because I want us to be better. I want us to be better in Cup competitions as well as the league,” he said.
“As the game went on, I felt too many stopped giving me everything and if there is anything that we can hold onto, and my identity, or this club’s identity, it is giving absolutely everything, no matter what the circumstances.
“I can’t be a manager that has a good team but never wins and I don’t mean never wins games of football, I mean never gets promoted, or gets through cup competitions.
“This club will never have an opportunity like it had on Saturday for a number of years because they don’t come round that often and we didn’t grasp it. I was so disappointed with what that turned us into.”
Accusations have been made that City are ‘bottle jobs’ having lost three of the last four play-off finals and while it may seem extremely unfair, it is an unwanted tag that Taylor and his players are desperate to shed.
Promotion from League Two remains the ultimate goal for Exeter and they need to get back to the kind of form they were showing in late November/early December when they didn’t just beat the likes of Colchester, Gillingham, Grimsby and Tranmere Rovers, but absolutely thrashed them.
Inconsistent Bolton are the epitome of a League Two team though, brilliant on their day, but equally as prone to maddening results. After five straight wins in November, they then lost four of the next six with their sole win in that time coming away to high-flying Cheltenham Town.
“Bolton are a good team and it will be a hell of a game for us, but we have to be ready to make an impact,” Taylor said.
“I will keep picking a team that give me everything on a daily basis but I was so disappointed with that performance (against Wednesday.)
“It started off really well and everyone was on the front foot and it is easy to play to your maximum when things are going your way. But you learn the most about yourself – myself included – when things go against you.
“We have fallen as many as four games behind some teams in the league and that’s an awful lot of games we have to make up in a quick period of time.
“We need to make up for lost time in the league and that’s three points I’ll be expecting Tuesday. I will pick the team for Tuesday based on the most honest group of players I get on Monday morning, and I hope any players that come in will be ready to be successful.”
The Grecians could have a new player in their ranks for the game with Taylor conforming after defeat to Sheffield Wednesday he is set to make at least one signing this week.