Mansfield defeat is a 'wake-up call' for off pace Grecians

EXETER City were ‘not good enough’ and suffered a ‘wake-up call’ as they were beaten at home by Mansfield Town.

- DANIEL CLARK

The Grecians were flat and off the pace but could have escaped with a point before conceding a late goal to lose at St James Park.

Frazer Blake-Tracy, who was left unmarked from a corner, saw his header creep in off the post to give the visitors a lead just before halftime. City looked short of ideas, but with 15 minutes to go, Sonny Cox saw a shot handled by Jordan Bowery. Josh Magennis stepped up and smashed in the penalty to draw the scores level.

‘There seemed to only be one winner as City piled on the pressure. But Will Evans with three minutes to go won it for Mansfield. He created the chance himself on the break and then finished from close range to send the away fans wild.

‘After a fantastic performance last Saturday against Blackpool, it has been back-to-back defeats now for Exeter, who have three of their four games this season. And manager Gary Caldwell said that they need to get better as they probably got what they deserved on Saturday.

“The result was not good enough, neither was the performance,’ Caldwell said. “I thought we were ok for 25 minutes but didn’t play with speed, everything was too slow, and give away a poor goal from a set piece.

“Second half isn’t much better, we got some momentum, and then throw a game away we looked like winning, should never lose. There were too many mistakes, too many poor performances, and probably got we deserved in the end