Taylor unhappy with poor Grecians

EXETER City manager Matt Taylor had no complaints as his side went down to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Morecambe.

The Grecians were hoping to build on Saturday’s 3-1 win over Stevenage and give their hopes of promotion a huge boost, but they were second best against a Morecambe side well drilled by former Plymouth Argyle boss Derek Adams.

Adam Phillips scored a first half penalty before Cole Stockton added a second on the counter attack, but it was no more than the Shrimps deserved.

“We were poor,” Taylor said. “We came up against a good team but we gave in to them with our poor start to the game.

“I had to change the shape and the personnel very early, which I have not had to do too often and it showed us up and made us a better team.

“Ironically, our instructions at half-time were to keep things simple, keep the ball moving, but the one moment we tried to force it and left ourselves open at the back, we didn’t have the mobility to cover the counter attack and it was too easy to score the second goal.

“We huffed and puffed, but it is the hardest thing to do to play against a block, but we gave them the right to defend like that and get bodies behind the ball.

“It didn’t quite fall for us and we had good moments without getting a shot off around the box, or a clear shot at goal, but it is difficult when it goes like that.”

Plymouth Argyle and Torquay United were also in action last night. The Pilgrims were at Swindon Town and the Gulls faced fellow promotion rivals Sutton United at Plainmoor.

Unfortunately, due to early print deadlines, we are unable to carry match reports on either clubs, but they are available – along with plenty of post-match reaction - on our websites at PlymouthLive.com and DevonLive.com.