Former team-mates collide in League Two play-off final

The Grecians face Coventry in the League Two play-off final this afternoon, 12 months after suffering a Wembley defeat to Blackpool at the same stage.

Manager Tisdale has also experienced victory and defeat in the National League play-off final during his 12 years in charge of the Devon club.

Asked what his team could take from last season’s disappointment, he said: “The experience of it. The experience of the build-up, the logistics, the preparations and the experience of how it felt at the end when we lost.

“Don’t forget, we have been there before. We have been there before at Exeter in the Conference days twice, winning and losing, so I think I have got the full spectrum of emotions.

“So we will take as much of that as we can in our management room and in our preparations but ultimately the key is when the players play they are not thinking about any of those things, they are just thinking about controlling the ball, heading the ball, tackling their opponent and beating their opposite number in the next four or five seconds.

“That is what it will boil down to.”

Opponents Coventry, who will be backed by an army of almost 35,000 fans, are hoping to bounce back to the third tier at the first time of asking following last year’s relegation.

Mark Robins’s Sky Blues finished the league campaign in sixth position, five points and two places below Exeter.

Robins, a former team-mate of Tisdale’s at Greek club Panionios, has urged his players to relish the occasion of playing at the national stadium, in spite of the pressure.

“It does all come down to this, it is as simple as that, but it is exciting isn’t it?” he said.