You Can't Beat Derby Delight

BIG DERBY matches will live with you forever – good and bad! Only a few weeks ago I went in to Exeter City to see how Paul Tisdale operates. Another former opponent, Wayne Carlisle, works there too so we had some lunch.

- Kevin Nicholson

I soon managed to find myself fighting them both off about the time Torquay and Exeter played against each other in the 2008 Conference play-off semi-finals.

Unfortunately Wayne got the better of me! He scored in the first leg and set one up in the second. Although I played pretty well, that’s all anyone remembers.

Tis has got a fantastic football memory. He spoke about Wayne scoring a near post header – something I’d conveniently forgotten.

He uses it as an example to this day to show his players how to get in the box. He pauses the video just before someone crosses the ball in and asks, ‘Who scores?’ At that point Wayne wasn’t even in the picture. So these moments stick with managers and players.

That was the lowest point I ever experienced in a derby game. We went to their ground in the first leg and won. But the writing was on the wall. We got battered for 90 minutes yet scored right at the start and at the end to win the game 2-1.