Monday view

By Mike McGough

Graham Alexander says an overall lapse of concentration at the end cost his side dearly on Saturday when Wycombe Wanderers headed the winner on 90 minutes.

“We gave away too many free-kicks and corners away in the last 10 minutes. That invites pressure on your goal and its pressure that must be dealt with. It was really disappointing to lose the goal from where it came. It wasn’t through good play from them and we have given away a cheap goal from a set piece. I still think it is a game we should have won.”

Fleetwood Town held the home side at the break but failure to produce in front of goal was punished at the end of normal time.

He said: “The responsibility of winning a game is on everybody – the goalkeeper, the back four, the midfield, the strikers. Everybody. We created some decent chances and, from that, I’d expect their keeper to be tested a lot more. He made a couple of saves from those chances instead of us making them count. If you don’t take chances then you are always at risk of losing a game by conceding one and that is just what happened.”

Alexander will set this week’s objective in training as preparation for the visit of high-flying Exeter City this Saturday. The Grecians were in 10th spot when Town took a point in December but have now pushed themselves into 4th place.

He continued: “It is up to us to put right those things which we haven’t done properly over the last four games. We did that for spells on Saturday but not enough to control the full 90 minutes. We have people who can create chances and score goals and that will make us hard to beat.

“Exeter are a very good team who play good football. They have some good footballers and Jamie Cureton is at the sharp end of the team. He’s scored 20 goals already this season and we know all about his threat. We have to ensure that threat is nullified as much as we can. By no means are we going to concentrate on one player. They have good players throughout the team.”

Saturday’s visitors have won an impressive 11 games on the road so far this season and have only been defeated once in the last 9 away games stretching back to the end of October.

Alexander said: “Football can change very quickly. Going into the Burton game we were fourth and looking above us. We’ve then had A poor run and we’ve dropped down the table. I said that could happen at any time. It can also happen the other way and you can jump up the table.

“Exeter have done well but their manager will know nothing is won in March and they will be looking to improve. They have the Wednesday game at Bristol Rovers but, come Saturday, we will concentrate on pushing our performance to the levels we know it needs to be to beat any opponent. That will hopefully be enough.

Steven Gillespie is being assessed this week after his hamstring scare at Adams Park on Saturday. The forward was brought off as a precaution but it is unclear whether he will be fit for Saturday’s clash yet.

Whilst Jamie McGuire serve the last of his three-match suspension after receiving a straight red card in the defeat to Aldershot just under a fortnight ago.