It’s interesting browsing the Exeter forum who see us as brutal thugs who they had to stand up to, their 4 yellow cards and stamp on Sheehan has seemingly gone unnoticed.

We’ve played 3 top of the table teams at RP this season and after today I’d say Exeter are streets behind Plymouth and Crewe, they settled for a point after half time.

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:Overriding feeling after the game of disappointment of not getting the 3 points, I thought we deserved. Stating the obvious, but we have drawn too many games to date to be challenging for a automatic promotion spot. However with 36 games still to go, anything is yet possible.
Was Amond injured today or was it a tactical substitution? If tactical, it was a very brave decision by the management team or manager which payed dividends.

We've only drawn one more than Exeter which are top...and Stevenage who are bottom.

Exeter will drop to the fringes of the play offs. The two surprise packages so far are Cheltenham and Crawley.Pleased for Bennett after the Macclesfield match.

Bennett was immense second half .
Mopped everything up at the back , and was the steady head we needed .
He's a very underestimated utility player IMHO.

Sheehan is our best player by far so far this season .

What was up with McNamara today ? Injury or tactical ??

I must say, along with my grandson we thoroughly enjoyed the game, particularly as we got stronger after the break, and what we may lack in overall team skill, we have the "balls" of a giant, and I can't fault the effort despite our injuries etc.! Scott Bennet was absolutely immense today, as were several others, and Josh Sheehan is a revelation, as always! Good crowd that also witnessed both our best and when we occasionally gave the ball away cheaply our worst, however we will get better, I'm certain of it..........
COME ON 'U MIGHTY PORT.........

OLDCROMWELLIAN wrote:Overriding feeling after the game of disappointment of not getting the 3 points, I thought we deserved. Stating the obvious, but we have drawn too many games to date to be challenging for a automatic promotion spot. However with 36 games still to go, anything is yet possible.
Was Amond injured today or was it a tactical substitution? If tactical, it was a very brave decision by the management team or manager which payed dividends.

Padraig was poor first half
We needed pace up front which we got with Tristan.
Jamille was woeful finishing. missing 4 chances.
Flynny said he missed 3 and Jamille said he should of had 4 himself.
Abrahams needs to be first forward on Flynny's sheet from now on.

Impressed with Exeter first half but not second. Under Tisdale they didn't leave a foot in like that.
They seemed to target Sheehan to kick lumps out of like teams used to do with Danny Rose.

Ref bottled sending Law off and they subbed him straight away. At one point he seemed to be losing control of play - turned round to see the aftermath of one late tackle and missed another.

Several great performances but particularly Bennett and Willmott.

At this level, is there any provision for a retrospective investigation of what looked like a stamp on Sheehan. Ref had turned away to follow the play and the Bisley assistant didn't flag it. I suppose with only one camera angle it may not be picked up. Things like that need a system of 'citing' for incidents not seen by the officials.

Read the Exeter forum and if you look through the comments they are very complimentary about us !? .... wording like they are thugs and hate playing them, in my mind are very complimentary... they were very happy with the point and most of them were settling for one beforehand. A lot of them see us as being right up there at the end.

Hi again,

Exeter fan here in peace once more.

I was interested to read your views, and always try to read both sides to get a balanced view of the match.

I spoke to a few County fans before the match and said I thought 1-1. I think we would both have taken it before the match?

Agree with most comments on here that we probably shaded the first half, but we just didn't or couldn't get started (to your credit) in the second half.

I don't think there are many comments on our site saying that County are thugs (maybe one or two, but you will get that with all clubs), most are just making the point that you are a strong and physical (not in a bad way) side, and in previous years we have been known to be intimidated by that, but not this year.

I also note various comments about Exeter players throwing themselves to the floor, and agree there was a bit of that going on, but I would say that both sides were guilty of it at times. It would be interesting to see extended highlights to check some of the tackles out from both sides. We sometimes do an extended highlight package on our site so will keep a look out for that.

Of the two main talking points, the penalty just looked like an all round mess from our point of view, and from where I was sat in the Bisley, I wasn't surprised when he gave it. Some from behind the goal say that he saw a trailing leg and made sure he fell over it (I guess they would say that though!!). TV pictures not really conclusive either way, but our player certainly gave the referee an opportunity to award it. Our gaffer wasn't arguing about that decision either, so that's good enough for me!!

I also didn't have a good view of the stamping incident as the play had moved on. Was anyone in a really good position to see it happen? I know there was an angry reaction from the fans on that side, so assume it was as stated.

All in all, a decent game, two good sides, cracking weather, good crowd, very good atmosphere as always, and as I live in South Wales, I am glad not to have to face a load of stick from work colleagues today about getting beaten.

Hope you don't mind me posting on here and see you on Boxing Day.

larrywilkie wrote:Hi again,

Exeter fan here in peace once more.

I was interested to read your views, and always try to read both sides to get a balanced view of the match.

I spoke to a few County fans before the match and said I thought 1-1. I think we would both have taken it before the match?

Agree with most comments on here that we probably shaded the first half, but we just didn't or couldn't get started (to your credit) in the second half.

I don't think there are many comments on our site saying that County are thugs (maybe one or two, but you will get that with all clubs), most are just making the point that you are a strong and physical (not in a bad way) side, and in previous years we have been known to be intimidated by that, but not this year.

I also note various comments about Exeter players throwing themselves to the floor, and agree there was a bit of that going on, but I would say that both sides were guilty of it at times. It would be interesting to see extended highlights to check some of the tackles out from both sides. We sometimes do an extended highlight package on our site so will keep a look out for that.

Of the two main talking points, the penalty just looked like an all round mess from our point of view, and from where I was sat in the Bisley, I wasn't surprised when he gave it. Some from behind the goal say that he saw a trailing leg and made sure he fell over it (I guess they would say that though!!). TV pictures not really conclusive either way, but our player certainly gave the referee an opportunity to award it. Our gaffer wasn't arguing about that decision either, so that's good enough for me!!

I also didn't have a good view of the stamping incident as the play had moved on. Was anyone in a really good position to see it happen? I know there was an angry reaction from the fans on that side, so assume it was as stated.

All in all, a decent game, two good sides, cracking weather, good crowd, very good atmosphere as always, and as I live in South Wales, I am glad not to have to face a load of stick from work colleagues today about getting beaten.

Hope you don't mind me posting on here and see you on Boxing Day.

A good balanced read.
After the stamp at the next break Flynny went mad at the Ref.
You could see the ref saying sorry but I didn't see it which is fair enough as the game had quickly moved on.
Chickened out with Law as that was 2 yellows for definite and Taylor took him off straight away.
Another yellow for Josh so cannot be far off a ban.

My take on the pen was the defender pushed Sheehan so he fell over the one who was prone.

George Street-Bridge wrote:My take on the pen was the defender pushed Sheehan so he fell over the one who was prone.

Ah right, that might explain why Parkes, who was the one on the deck, looked so shocked when it was given

With ref to the front cover of todays programme MR Ron Jones, I think the man was a great man and I was lucky to meet him a number of times. There was a piece in the local papers where we were asked to make it known that we think that the Welsh FA should award that team a posthumous WELSH CAP after seeing Ron Jones and the "Welsh Team" wartime photograph. I think that would be a fitting tribute to a lovely man, who, lets not forget actually gave his time during the past 30 odd years selling Poppies to remember the people who lost their lives for their country in the war -------. "The Poppy Seller" is actually a film of Ron Jones years
Rest In Peace, Mr Jones !!! Come on The Port !! Bob Bassett

There was a definite stamp from an Exeter player. And the ref definitely bottled red carding Law for a second bad challenge.

But having said that I think the draw was a fair(ish) result. I don't think our strikers are producing the goods at the moment and although we created sufficient chances to win with a misfiring strike force we didn't deserve to win...