Relegation Fodder. That's what we are - nothing more. In pre-season I said it would be tough for us to have a worse season than last, but we're certainly doing our best to prove that theory wrong.
It only took 3 minutes for Exeter, yet to score an away goal this season, took the lead. Nardiello twisted and turned, Westlake backed off and Nardiello's left footed strike found its way into the top corner. Unfamiliar territory for the visitors and you just got the feeling that the evening wouldn't go to plan.
Five minutes later, a route one defensive header looped over the Exeter back four and Nicholls stole in behind to drive the ball home. We hadn't started, yet found ourselves back level.
For the next 15 minutes or so, we played OK with Peterlin picking the ball up in the middle and feeding some quality ball to Hurst & Paterson in wide positions. Hurst smashed a drive against the post, but that was a rare sighting of goal for either side. Peterlin and Hurst aside, our football had been desperately poor at times, with Taundry in particular constantly giving the ball away under little pressure.
Slipping and sliding all over a greasy pitch, both sides went into half time with little to argue against the score.
The obligatory slow start to the second half followed. Exeter slowly started knocking the ball about neatly and as a result, began to grow in confidence.
We proceeded to give the ball away all too easily in midfield and a lack of movement saw us revert back to the aimless style of play we'd tried to get away from over the previous handful of matches. A speculative Macken drive caught the angle between post and bar, but that was our lot as far as goalscoring opportunities were concerned.
Exeter realised that if they got the ball out to their left wing, Westlake would let them run at him and so came the winning goal. Nardiello had already driven one angled shot from their left beyond Walker but that one was blocked on the line. It was second time lucky when he cut inside Westlake, Smith didn't come across to make a block and we fell behind again.
Dean Smith tried to change things with the introductions of Gnakpa for Paterson and Grigg for Macken, but neither really carry enough threat to worry the opposition. Grigg somehow managed to waste a chance to rescue a point when he glanced a header wide from about 3 yards out with just a minute of stoppage time remaining, which just about summed up our general potency in front of goal.
I had full faith in Smith's leadership, but I really do fear the worst now. Every week he keeps the same system and keeps faith in players who persist in offering nothing. We give the ball away far too often with Taundry in the side regardless of who plays alongside him, whilst we've also conceded four goals in the last two games thanks to poor defending from Westlake. Of course, there's bigger issues such as a lack of threat up front, but if we kept the ball for longer and stuck to basic defensive principles, perhaps we wouldn't need to score three goals to win a game.
This season is starting to look all too familiar. Whilst a win against Preston was a good result, defeat to a side who were yet to score an away goal is more than enough to set alarm bells ringing.
By: Rob Jones