Tisdale rues missed opportunity

Paul Tisdale feels missed penalties have cost his side points this season

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale was upset at seeing a 1-0 lead turned into a 2-1 defeat at Chesterfield on Wednesday night.

Having gone one up through Dean Moxey, only for Jack Lester to equalise, City had a great chance to go back in front when Steve Basham missed a penalty.

Lester then struck again within two minutes to leave Tisdale exasperated.

"I'm terribly disappointed because we had a great opportunity given to us today," Tisdale told BBC Radio Devon.

"We weren't at our best but we did enough to be given an opportunity against a very good side.

"It's come down to those two or three minutes in the second half where we get a penalty, miss it, and they go and score."

And Tisdale feels that too many missed spot kicks have cost his side the chance to be well embedded in the play-off zone.

"To miss the penalty is just sickening really," he added. "We must have missed three or four this season and it's cost us points.

"We've had three really tough games on the road which ended tonight with a very weary team.

"Those three games have taken their toll on me, the staff and the players. It's been a really tough nine days."

After City's three straight away games at Dagenham & Redbridge, Gillingham and Chesterfield, they now have the comparative respite of successive home games against League Two strugglers.

This Saturday's visit of Barnet to St James Park (31 January, 1500 GMT) is followed by next Tuesday night's home date with Port Vale (3 February, 1945 GMT).