Tisdale: We must improve away from home

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale is keeping his cards close to his chest as he ponders his starting line-up for this Saturday`s game at Walsall.

Tisdale will no doubt have deliberated for hours about what went wrong at Huddersfield last week, but will have been boosted by the performances of some of the fringe players as the reserves beat Swansea in midweek. The City boss spoke to the official site, but was giving nothing anyway as he took his usual philosophical approach. He said as a player "you get judged on a very short basis and if you played a game and not performed you are in the firing line for criticism or to be dropped the next week if you don`t perform".

Tisdale went onto say that away performances haven`t been what they should be this season "We haven`t competed well enough in our away games in the last couple of months so we have to reserve that trend". That was certainly the case last weekend, and also at Gillingham. And whilst there were encouraging displays at high flyers Leeds United and Charlton Athletic, the Grecians returned from those games with no points.

Saddlers boss Chris Hutchings is wary of a Grecians backlash. "Exeter will no doubt come here with a point to prove after a heavy defeat at Huddersfield Town last week", Hutchings remarked to the Walsall official site. "It will be up to us to come out and get at them", he added.

It is pivotal the Grecians start from the first whistle, and are not made to pay once again for an early goal. Hoping to grow into a game won`t work this league, especially away from home where the home side will be eager to put pressure on you from the start. The goals conceded in the first twenty minutes against Leeds, MK Dons, Gillingham and Huddersfield are testament to this. City lost all four of these games and a more positive outlook from the start won`t do any harm.

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