‘Sky Should Apologise’ – Exeter City Fans React To Imps Draw
It was another hard fought point away from home on Saturday afternoon in Devon. Gary Caldwell thought the same as he gave his thoughts on the fixture in his post match interview as did Grecian fans online, writes Kyle Fox.
For Lincoln, it was a game where on another day, we could’ve easily come away with all three points. However, it’s still a great point gained in the scheme of things and when you take into account the injuries we had before and during the game with Reeco missing from the squad also away on international duty.
We played well over the course of 90 minutes and our performance warranted the victory but unfortunately, football doesn’t work like that. Exeter are a good side and they are tough to break down, I can see why they’ve conceded such a small amount of goals to this point and how they have kept nine clean sheets in 14 games in the league. However, they do lack an attacking edge, but both sides did on the day.
There’s not much to mention about the first half apart from Whitworth’s save from Moylan’s free kick attempt and some questionable refereeing decisions that would be a theme throughout the game. There was nothing between the two sides in the first 45. Second half, we were clearly the better side and we looked very threatening and in control at times with Erhahon a big catalyst of the change in control.
We created the only chances of the second half and put the home side under pressure. Darikwa was excellent throughout the game and slotted in effortlessly, as he always does, in the absence of Paudie O’Connor who was forced off at half time through injury. Jack Moylan was good throughout the game after he deservedly was placed in the starting XI. He was a threat and a creative spark as he always tries to be.
The call-up issue for Exeter was a big theme leading up to the game; it was the narrative that overshadowed the game before it even began. Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell was quick to bring that up himself pre-match and also mentioned it in his thoughts about the match in his post-match interview.
When asked if he was pleased or frustrated by gaining a point, he said
“Anytime we play at home, we want to try and win the game- we always knew how difficult that would be, Lincoln are a strong team. They’ve had a great record since the beginning of this year, end of last season- start of this season.”
“I thought we were the better team first half without creating a lot. I thought we lost control of the game second half and you could see near the end of the game the team fatigued a little bit. We didn’t quite have the finishers that we normally do to really energise the team.”
“The amount of long of balls they (Lincoln) that they looked to play and second half they actually played a bit more through the thirds where we had to stand up to that.”
“The effort, the commitment from the players (Exeter’s players) was first class and that’s the minimum we ask of the players to get us that clean sheet and to give us the opportunity to win. On the other side in possession, I think we have to be braver, we have to have more intent to play our game.”
When asked if fouls and Lincoln’s physicality affected the flow of the game, he had this to say.
“Yeah they’re happy with that, that’s the game they want to play. I think the difficulty for us is we have to be competitive and aggressive but every time we do that they go down.”
“They are hard to games to play when you need to be aggressive and the and the ref is giving a foul or randomly giving fouls. Some for fouls that aren’t fouls, he’s not giving fouls when it is.”
There were a few different mentions of their missing players as well with some from the interviewer like when asking Caldwell if he was happy with the application of his players due to the issue of the missing players. It remained the main narrative from at least Exeter’s point of view before, during and after the game. It does make sense why as we would feel aggrieved if put in the same situation.
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