Morecambe 1 Exeter 1 Howe

[Keith]

YESSSS!!!!

Sounds like we've been easily the brighter team so far although it was a keeping error that led to the goal after he'd made a couple of good saves.

[forces shrimp]

sky sports online is saying we are in total control!

[Keith]

Shame we didn't manage a second before half time, sounds like we had a few good chances. Despite the mistake, sounds like their keeper has had a good game. Hope they don't come out a different team in the second half.

[forces shrimp]

exeter down to 10 men cozic sent off, now lets take advantage boys. bentley subed for wainwright due to injury!

[wonder shrimp]

1-1 apparently

[DTSJim]

full time, bit disappointing that we couldn't take advantage of the extra man.

[forces shrimp]

fulltime 1-1 took some presure late on

[ezz]

1 point is better than 0, but a missed opportunity today to take 3 points. But still you can see the deinfate improvement in results and performances lately. So bring on Cheltenham and lets keep this form up and get a nice cash boost!

[scalehallshrimp]

2 points thrown away today,1st half momentum completely gone in 2nd half and they scored a deserved equaliser,could not understand why we gave them so much room down our right hand side where we looked sadly exposed in the last 45 minutes
still a point against 8th place side much better than 2 months ago
scalehall shrimp

[Crooky MFC]

Sometimes its harder to play against 10 men, we had plenty of the ball we just couldn't seem to create the chances. Also, it was handball leading up to their goal

[John L]

Bit scrappy today, neither side were great but we really should have held on for the win, if not build on the one goal lead. Then again, what do I know.... didn't even realise Exeter went down to 10 men!!!

[outsider]

Fraser McLachlan i thought was great today and we lost midfield when he went off.

[Martin]

Thought we were far and away the better side in the first half. Exeter never really threatened and we looked pretty secure. Despite the sending off early in the second which sometimes galvanises sides, I think the blow for us came with both McLaughlan and Bentley going off. Many see Jimbo as slow and perhaps struggling at league level, but take him out of the team and the defensive strength and organisation suffers.

I'm very disappointed we only came away with a point because the encouraging thing about this game was that Exeter looked like a team that had just come up from the Conference, and we looked like an established league side.

Can't argue with their goal; it was an excellent finish.

Beforehand I'd have been happy with a draw, but in the end disappointed to have failed to capitalise on our general superiority.

But it all bodes well for the future.

[Christies Child]

The longer the game went on with us only 1-0 up it was always on the cards that something would happen amd sure enough....1-1 with a superb strike by
Panther; ironically one of the pplayers who impressed me during the games v York in our promotion season to suggest that when he became available that we should have gone after him.

For me Artell was absolute garbage especially on the first half when on at least 6 occassions his long boots up field where to nobody with a complete lack of creative use of the ball.

Why DC was playing a withdrawn striking role in the second half beats me when we should have been pressurising their back 4 at every opportunity. O'Carroll put some life into the last quarter but by then we'd lost the plot and allowed Exeter to come back when they should have been dead and buried.

An excellent opening 45 but the closing......oh dear!

[mounse mk2]

Thought we were far and away the better side in the first half. Exeter never really threatened and we looked pretty secure. Despite the sending off early in the second which sometimes galvanises sides, I think the blow for us came with both McLaughlan and Bentley going off. Many see Jimbo as slow and perhaps struggling at league level, but take him out of the team and the defensive strength and organisation suffers.

I'm very disappointed we only came away with a point because the encouraging thing about this game was that Exeter looked like a team that had just come up from the Conference, and we looked like an established league side.

Can't argue with their goal; it was an excellent finish.

Beforehand I'd have been happy with a draw, but in the end disappointed to have failed to capitalise on our general superiority.

But it all bodes well for the future.

Absolutely agree with what you said.

I thought some of our football in the 1st half was excellent.

The sending off seemed to galvanise Exeter. I had a funny feeling that some of our players were scared to really make a challenge because the referee would have have evened up the sending offs. The Exeter players were making a meal of every challenge and the reaction of their goalkeeper and a number of their players to Danny Carlton's genuine attempt to win the ball was a disgrace.

Still as others have said i would definitely have taken a point before the game and it keeps are unbeaten run going.

UP THE SHRIMPS!

[campdave]

Thought McCann had a good game today, as he has for the last couple of times he's been in the team.

[BHmfc]

First half we were in total control and had 4 good goal scoring chances, however, the game changed completely when Bentley went off injured early in the second half. We had to revert to a flat back 4, rather than playing the 5 across the back which allows the 2 full backs to push on, supporting the midfield who in turn push forward, allowing us to get more bodies in the box. Reverting to the flat back 4 allowed Exeter to have more time and space and at times we had no outlets which meant Exeter put us on the back foot. With McGiven in the team SM has been using a 5-3-2 formation which has worked well, however when we reverted back to a 4-4-2 we looked a poor team. If we are unable to re-sign McGiven for another loan spell, we still need to keep playing a 5-3-2 formation, it's worked well in the last 5 or 6 games and it's a style which will improve when the players feel more comfortable playing that way.

[heysham_mfc]

we should have killed them off way before they scored today

[Christies Child]

Thought McCann had a good game today, as he has for the last couple of times he's been in the team.

Totally agree.

Of all Sammy's outfield signings he's the one who is now coming good. Feel that O'Carroll will still be a valuable asset.

[campdave]

Thought McCann had a good game today, as he has for the last couple of times he's been in the team.

Totally agree.

Of all Sammy's outfield signings he's the one who is now coming good. Feel that O'Carroll will still be a valuable asset.

Glad we didn't pay up his contract before the season started then?

[Jody]

I cannot understand why when Jimbo had to go off, why Sammy didn't just do a straight swop and put Parrish in at centre back, thus keeping the formation which had been working so well up til today. The change in formation seemed to have a negative effect on everyone and I think it became our downfall- it seemed to suddenly gave Exeter that bit extra that they'd been lacking up until then.
Thought the midfield worked hard, and Ryan McCann had a great game. Good pressure from Rene for the goal. But I think the most important thing that showed today was how much Jimbo was missed after he was subbed.

[Christies Child]

Thought McCann had a good game today, as he has for the last couple of times he's been in the team.

Totally agree.

Of all Sammy's outfield signings he's the one who is now coming good. Feel that O'Carroll will still be a valuable asset.

Glad we didn't pay up his contract before the season started then?

Yes...some of us did get it wrong....but at the time

[Jody]

At the time maybe, to some he appeared to be struggling. But maybe that is also known as 'settling in.'

[BHmfc]

I cannot understand why when Jimbo had to go off, why Sammy didn't just do a straight swop and put Parrish in at centre back, thus keeping the formation which had been working so well up til today. The change in formation seemed to have a negative effect on everyone and I think it became our downfall- it seemed to suddenly gave Exeter that bit extra that they'd been lacking up until then.
Thought the midfield worked hard, and Ryan McCann had a great game. Good pressure from Rene for the goal. But I think the most important thing that showed today was how much Jimbo was missed after he was subbed.

Totally agree, the formation was changed and the team lost all its shape, allowing Exeter to gain the advantage. What concerned me the most is how poor we looked when we reverted to the old 4-4-2, (pre McGivern). Let's hope we can extend his loan.

[marky]

That was definitely a tale of two halves. We were excellent in the first half, but for me we should have made our dominance count with more than 1 goal. A number of our players are very reluctant to shoot around the box and that isn't really good enough. Anyway, the second half was absolutely dreadful. Obviously Bentley's forced substitution didn't help but personally I feel it was Sammy's choice of replacement that was more important in terms of how poor we were. Wainwright was awful and that's being kind. Why he didn't bring Parrish on I'll never know. Once we went 4-4-2 we were all over the place and frankly were lucky to get a point in the end. You would never know they had 10 men. In fact, for much of the half it felt like they had the extra man! Panther's goal was a great finish but he should never have been allowed that much space and time in the first place. McGivern was slow to get back and we paid the price. In summary, Sammy has to take the blame for that one as his decisions cost us 2 points.