Dean Smith felt his side needed to do more in the final third as Ryan Harley’s extra-time strike dumped The Bees out of the EFL Cup at the First Round stage. The Grecians midfielder scored the only goal of the game, finishing off a neat move, just before half-time in extra-time as the Sky Bet League Two side booked their place in the next round. Speaking to Bees Player after the match, Dean felt his side had the better of the game but didn’t do anywhere near enough when they had the ball.
“There is disappointment that we are out of the cup because I thought that we were in control of the game,” said Dean. “Unfortunately the game turned on one goal and we didn’t get it. For all our control we never really tested their goalkeeper, I don’t think that Jack Bonham has had a save to make either. It became a bit of a midfield battle where we had a lot of the football but didn’t open them up enough. That is something that we have to get better at, especially our decision making in the final third. After they scored the game became ragged as we tried to get back into the game in the final 15 minutes.
“We were a very young team with different players. Emmanuel Ledesma has never played with Philipp Hofmann before. We were looking at Josh Clarke wide and Sam Saunders played on the left. There were some passages of play where we could have opened them up and taken our opportunities but that was just our decision making. That is something we will work on this week and get better at. We have players who stayed back and they will make us better.”
Dean had intended to use the trip to the South West to give minutes to a number of players who had missed time over pre-season. However, he admitted it was far from ideal to lose Alan McCormack in the early stages and for the game then to go to extra-time.
“It was asking a lot of Jan Holldack and Tom Field to get through 120 minutes,” said Dean. “It was a first cup game for both of them and Jan’s debut. They visibly tired but that is the EFL’s wisdom of playing extra time. Myself and Paul Tisdale said before the game that we would have been quite happy with 90 minutes and then penalties but it wasn’t to be. I was hoping that Nico Yennaris didn’t get 120 minutes. There was a plan for Alan McCormack to play the majority of the match but unfortunately he had to come off. It is not ideal but we have three days to recover before a big game against Ipswich Town."
The Bees Head Coach revealed after the match that Alan’s injury was a heel issue but said there was better news for other members of the squad carrying knocks ahead of Saturday's Sky Bet Championship match at home to Ipswich Town.
“Alan has a boot on at the moment with a heel injury,” said Dean. “He needed minutes because he has had a few injuries during pre-season. It was his first game of the season. He felt something in the warm-up but wanted to start and unfortunately came off after 11 minutes. We are hoping that Maxime Colin will start training tomorrow as will Andreas Bjelland. Romaine Sawyers, who had a tight hamstring, will be training and so will Lewis Macleod. We have a number of players to come back now which is good.”