Matt Taylor a happy man following Exeter’s win over Stevenage

Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by PA

Exeter manager Matt Taylor was delighted with his side as they turned in what he felt was one of their best displays of the season to beat Stevenage 1-0.

Dean Moxey scrambled the ball home for the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time to lift City back up to second place in the League Two table.

“In the first half I thought we were excellent but full credit to Stevenage,” Taylor said. “I thought they withstood some serious pressure in the first half and I thought that was one of our best displays, along with the second half against Cheltenham.

“A lesser team may have cracked a lot earlier than they did as they withstood us until the 46th, 47th minute and even then we had a bit of luck with the goal.

“There was a good intent about us in the first half and in the second half they threw a few more bodies forward and put us under a bit of pressure without really creating too many opportunities and I still felt we had an instinct in terms of our attacking mentality.

“We really should have killed the game off in the second half, but it was relatively comfortable in the second half.

“I thought it was a proper game of football with two good teams. I said the clean sheets would come and for the lads to get that is a confidence boost to them because we have been conceding one in games recently.”

Stevenage had full-back Luther Wildin sent off late in the game for a second yellow card and manager Dino Maamria was critical of the referee.

“Luther got booked trying to keep the ball in play, and he was booked for kicking the ball away. That yellow card was a shambles,” he said.

“The biggest decision of the night was when Alex Revell headed the ball and Moxey had his arm in the air, almost like volleyball. The referee gave a goal kick when he put the ball out of play with his arm.

“We had four or five bookings and the referee lost control of the game. I will go and speak to the referee.

“We were very poor in the first half. Maybe the travelling caught up with us. The day felt like it was rushed, and the first-half performance reflected that. But I thought in the second half we were terrific and we dominated the game. We just didn’t have that cutting edge.

“We had four or five mistakes leading up to the goal. We conceded the corner but the referee put six minutes up and their goal was in the seventh minute. I don’t understand how sometimes they say it is a minimum amount of time and other times it is not.”