More woe for Grecians as City star injured in training.

Another away defeat, this time at the hands of MK Dons, a team beaten by Yeovil the previous Saturday, writes Gareth Hughes.

You would be forgiven if you though that there could be no worse news to come out of the Club as it slid down into the relegation zone. Well there was, and on Monday , the club announced that Exeter City defender Danny Coles is recovering in hospital after fracturing a bone in his spine during training. The incident happened in Monday’s session at the club’s Cat and Fiddle training ground, in a collision with goalkeeper Artur Krysiak. A club spokesman said Coles is in a stable condition and injuries are not career-threatening although he will miss the rest of this season.

Clearly we have to put things in perspective and Grecians fans will be deeply concerned for a player who has been one of the most consistent, with strong personal contributions and performances. It would now be easy to look back and bemoan the cascade of bad luck which has seemingly haunted the club from almost the beginning of the season. At the end of the game last week the players and management didn’t emerge from the changing room until well over an hour after the referee called an end to their 3-0 loss. It certainly was not a teacup throwing or hair dryer session though, and assistant manager Rob Edwards later explained how the mood in there was positive but honest.”There were some home truths said and I think he (Tisdale) wanted to let the players know how much he and all the staff care about the situation and how they understand the seriousness and the consequences of relegation,” he said. “Maybe one or two of them weren’t realising what could happen. So a few home truths were said but they are an honest bunch of players but I do think it’s time they stepped forward now and realised this is a serious situation. But the mood in the changing rooms afterwards was positive - Tis is a positive guy and he wasn’t destroying people’s confidence he was building the players for next week.”

In terms of the game, it was for the Grecians their fifth straight defeat on the road and for MK Dons their first win in three games. In fairness the home side were mainly dominant throughout. Exeter fan David Hughes now living in Hertfordshire was at the game. “ First half we weren’t really in it. Jonathan Fortune who we signed as last week as an emergency defender from Charlton didn’t impress at all. He looked out of sorts in the left back position, and was involved and partly culpable in their first two goals. We had a few chances in the second half but nothing of real note. Richard Logan had a great 1 on 1 near the end, and he miss kicked and skyed the ball over the goal! Chris Shephard came on late and looked good. Overall though a poor team performance!”

This Saturday thankfully it’s a home game the visitors being Preston, and with the vocal Grecian fans behind them a win could be on the cards. Preston have won only two of their last 10 games and with the motivational team talk at the Stadium mk still in their minds, the team will rise to the occasion! It would be good if Lady luck could pop in at St James too! In the meantime Rob Edwards can have the last say.”We have ten big games now for the club to fight for the club to stay out at this level and get out of trouble. We’ve done it before and we’ve shown we can deal with playing in big games as well. We did it two years ago.”We are looking forward to those 10 games, and will fight and be on the front foot.” Well almost the last word from Rob, Come on you Reds- we can still do this.