Tisdale hails resilient Exeter

Paul Tisdale praised the way Exeter coped in difficult conditions as they kept their play-off hopes alive with a 2-1 win at Cheltenham.

Goals in each half from Tom Nichols and Graham Cummins plunged the Robins deeper into trouble at the foot of the table and took Exeter to within four points of the top seven. The home side pulled one back late on through an own goal and mounted a late push, but Exeter held out for a deserved win. "The last five minutes of the game were surreal and one goal can easily become two, so we didn't really want to concede the first even though it was an own goal," Tisdale said. "It's very hard to play against six players in your D and the ball being pumped in, with 100 balloons in the way, the sun in your eyes on a terrible pitch against a team that is panicking and I am proud of them. "We played very competently and after 10 minutes we settled and played some appropriate, competent football. "I explained how I wanted the game to be played, looking at the state of the pitch, and they did exactly what I asked of them. "Ryan Harley is a certain type of footballer, but he ran and got close to the ball, doing everything for the team and we were tough at the back." Cheltenham boss Russell Milton was determined to remain upbeat about his side's chances of avoiding the drop. "That wasn't a must-win game because there are still eight games and 24 points and there's still time," he said. "We'd like a few more wins, of course we would. We had a couple of good results and we needed to back it up with a home win, but we've got to look to next week against Plymouth now. "It is disappointing, but Tranmere have lost and there's a couple of draws I think, so it's all still fairly tight. We've just got to wait and see where the next game takes us and do our best." Cheltenham carved out the first chance of the game in the third minute when Danny Haynes fed Wes Burns, who sent a shot wide of the far post. Burns' cross was nodded wide by Matt Sparrow in the 17th minute, but Exeter took the lead in the 26th minute. A long free-kick from Pym was helped on by David Wheeler and Nichols lifted the ball neatly over advancing goalkeeper Trevor Carson and into the net. Carson saved from Tom McCready low to his right in the 58th minute and the lively Nichols had a chance to grab his 15th of the season to make it 2-0 in the 74th minute, but he could not keep his shot down. Cheltenham substitute Omari Sterling-James saw an effort deflected wide, but Exeter secured the points when Cummins followed up after Arron Davies' shot was not dealt with by Carson in the 86th minute. Cheltenham pulled one back through Jordan Moore-Taylor's own goal in the 89th minute after a shot from Lee Vaughan caused problems in the Exeter box.