Paul Tisdale thrilled with Exeter’s comeback victory over Cambridge

Posted Sunday, April 08, 2018 by PA

Paul Tisdale praised his Exeter side’s second-half performance after their dramatic win at Cambridge.

Matt Jay and Jake Taylor scored in the last six minutes to secure a 3-2 victory, having trailed 2-1 following George Maris’ superb goal midway through the second period.

Jabo Ibehre had given Cambridge the lead in the first half before Jayden Stockley equalised to set up the late drama.

“It was a good day for us. It’s all about the result so we’re delighted,” said Tisdale.

“We had a few debates at half-time because Cambridge certainly had the better of the first half so we needed to do something.

“It opened up a bit. We had to attack and we had three players in the middle in attack and of course we were open in the middle of midfield. Lo and behold they got a shot (Maris’ goal) from the middle of midfield but that’s the way it is.

“You can’t cover everything and I still fancied us because we had the bit between our teeth.

“We were bold and brave with what we were doing and I just felt we had that sort of confidence about us today. It was a tough game for us. The first half was more difficult with the breeze – we played with a stiff breeze and we didn’t deal with it very well.

“The second half was a lot easier for us into that breeze. We covered the pitch better, the players were bold and got into good areas. MJ (Matt Jay) and Jake Taylor were both excellent in the roles off Jayden. It was a really impressive second-half performance.”

Cambridge boss Joe Dunne was not too disheartened despite the defeat.

“I’m very proud of the team to contribute to what was a great game,” he reflected.

“We want more of that. Take away the little spell where they got their two goals where we switched off, overall I was really pleased with how we performed.

“We’ve been building to these attacking moments in games that we did a lot today, we want to play that front foot football and I think we saw that against a team going for automatic promotion. I suppose you could say that’s why.

“We got three injuries at three key stages in the match and when you look at how the game went after those injuries after the game restarted, those were the moments where we needed to tighten up and we didn’t. We got punished, however I don’t want to take away from what was a really good performance.

“We’ll play like that and the more we play like that the more we’ll win games, that’s for sure.”