ECFC fan in peace
Hi, Exeter fan here looking forwards to next weeks game. Won't be there myself as I don't get to many away's now due to family commitments, but should be a good game.
Have had a bit of a running arguement over on our forum Exeweb where a fair few of our fans have a problem with your team and manager. It got particularly bad when you beat us last season, and a number of fans have clearly not gotten over it. I don't particularly get why the dislike is so strong, and wanted to ask whether you get this a lot from other clubs following comments on Twitter following the last two of your games?
I have seen the last two games between us at st James park, and watched your play off matches and really couldn't see anything to upset anyone. I think your manager has done a good job to get you competing at the right end after coming so close to dropping into the conference, and you were really unfortunate imo to come so close and not get promoted. I think Gareth Ainsworth recognises that to be successful it's necessary sometimes to gain an advantage in league two where it isn't always about passing football. Our manager Paul Tisdale while he sometimes gets us playing attractive football is so principled in trying to do things in the "proper manner" that he sometimes puts that above the overall results, plus having been at the club for so long he is in an unusual position of not having same job pressure that exists generally in the football league.
All the best for the rest of the season, hope we can get a good result on Saturday but I will at least be prepared to be sporting if it doesn't go our way. Thanks for beating Plymouth as well, was very amusing how they took their defeat so poorly. :-)
Comments
We generally have a lot of upset Devon based fans unhappy at us. I think it's because we so often have gone to Torquay, Exeter and Plymouth in recent times and won
Yeah, I did make the point that when we won at home against you last season there wasn't much upset then. Think you have won at Plymouth five on the bounce now, and beaten us more times than the other way around in recent seasons.
I don't see many games any more, not being local, and I'm more likely to go to Tues night than Saturday games. But I do recall a particularly timewastey game from us a couple of seasons back (I think) vs ECFC which pissed the away fans off no end.
Like I say I don't see many games, so maybe we've cut out the bullshit, but the consistent 6 mins stoppage time every game would seem to say otherwise.
Do you think your manager is a bit of a knob, dressing the way he does. Does he do it for the attention. Always seem to have a massive ego, but he has been with you a good while now...what do the fans think of him???
The thing is we are extremely limited in our playing staff in terms of numbers. We are playing above our level so a lot of our wins are grinding ones as opposed to out classing teams effortlessly. Grinding sometimes isn't that pretty.
You also have to consider the DNA of our manager when it comes to dark arts. John Beck. Crazy Gang. Preston of the 90s.
However i will say are we any worse than many teams? Of course not. Luton today were as bad as I have seen us all season so you reap what you sow I guess.
Some of the mud slinging has been pretty pathetic. Last week your county cousins accused us of time-wasting when our reserve keeper was injured and we had to replace him with the 46 year old coach. Cos we planned that.
So enjoy your trip. Good luck with the trust. Hope we beat you but good luck for the rest of the season after Saturday.
Oh and great showing against Liverpool by the way.
He did very well for us for the first five years, but since then I don't think he would have survived as a manager at many other clubs and it's fair to say I am not a fan so wouldn't argue with your suggestion. He has been quoted as saying he thinks if he dresses well it gives him a perceived advantage which sounds a bit of a twatish thing to say.
Opinion of him is split, he has a lot of supporters and a lot who would like him gone. This season for instance we have had some great results mixed with some very poor ones, he got us very close to beating Liverpool and then picked a side for the replay with an average age of 33 leaving our top scorer on the bench. We will never have the biggest budget but nothing ever seems to be his fault. I think he needs to get us at least challenging seriously for the play offs to be successful, but he is so much a part of the club I don't think he will ever be sacked as a lot at the club are too scared to embrace change and I think he knows he is well off where he is.
Well done on your win tonight.
@richardECFC Cheers. Hopefully a good game on Saturday.
I hope so too. As much as a good result will do, I'm a football romantic in a results business and these days the latter takes precedence.