Wayne Carlisle praises Exeter’s resilience after easing to win at Forest Green

Posted Saturday, September 24, 2022 by PA

Exeter assistant boss Wayne Carlisle championed the Grecians’ resilience as they returned to winning ways with a 4-0 victory at Forest Green.

Former Rovers forward Jevani Brown bagged a hat-trick as Exeter emphatically gained the derby day bragging rights.

Carlisle said: “We called for a reaction from the players after the last two results. I thought they showed today that they can bounce back from the negative results we’ve had in the last week or so.

“We understand that Forest Green like to play the ball, it’s probably more of a tactical game. So we’d worked across the week on how we counter that and we set about it from the first minute.

“We got them on the back foot with that goal and just carried on from there.

“In the second half we didn’t feel we had to go and chase the game, they could come to us. And we just sort of adapted it and the front three took on the information really well at half-time.

“They’ve done a fantastic shift for the team out of possession and in possession they score their goals and they set things up so you know they’ve done their job.”

Rovers pressed the self-destruct button after six minutes – Blackpool loanee Oliver Casey squandered possession for Brown to find Sam Nombe who finished beyond Luke McGee.

Exeter were handed a fortuitous penalty on 25 minutes when Ben Stevenson’s high boot appeared to catch Rekeem Harper, leaving Brown to convert the spot-kick.

Exeter made it three in the 41st minute. Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield drove into the box for Brown to grab his second.

After the break, McGee’s save from a Pierce Sweeney volley on 63 minutes prevented a fourth for Exeter.

Rovers felt they had claims for a penalty with 20 minutes to go when Dom Bernard was pushed in the box by Jack Sparkes.

At the other end, though, Bernard upended Sparkes for a penalty, leaving Brown to claim his second goal from the spot and third of the match after 83 minutes.

Forest Green boss Ian Burchnall bemoaned referee Benjamin Speedie, feeling the two Brown penalties should have been chalked off.

“I’ve watched both penalties back and we were hard done by, if I’m honest,” he said.

“The first penalty, the player (Harper) puts his head down and goes into Ben Stevenson and he kicks it off his head, and the second one is a dive.

“At the same time we didn’t deserve anything out of the game, but at 2-0 we had a couple of huge chances – Connor Wickham had a chance and we had one cleared off the line, but you need that goal to get back into the game.

“The league is very tight and a couple of wins and suddenly things look much better, so we need to keep positive.”

Burchnall answered the fans who were calling for his head during the game, saying: “I’ve done this for more than 10 years and I’ve managed close to 200 games.

“This isn’t new, that you lose a game and fans are angry, but they can express however they feel – I do my job and I know what I do, a lot of sacrifices go into it and I work extremely hard and I will continue to do that.”