The Grecians were hanging on to a 1-0 lead given to them by Jamie Cureton's goal on the stroke of half-time, but Ian Henderson and Bobby Grant netted in the final three minutes as Dale completed a remarkable comeback.
It was no more than they deserved as well and, following a poor performance in the Devon derby at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, Exeter were just as bad yesterday.
"I have not seen one of my teams play so poorly for a long, long time. We struggled to put passes together or play any meaningful forward play at all today," Tisdale said.
"With five minutes to go, we were leading 1-0 and you just hope that you can hang on, considering how poor we were today.
"You hope you can hang on, and to be at that point and then concede so late in the game and then an injury time winner is very disappointing," Tisdale added.
"I used words on Saturday like fractured and not being cohesive and there being no fluidity to our play. It needs experience to tidy the play and keep things together and it was the same again today."
The win keeps Exeter in seventh, the last of the play-off places, and five points off automatic promotion. Only three points separate them from Fleetwood Town in eighth.
"We have lost the game, but we are still in the play-off zone and we still have six games to go, so I can spin positives from it. But it feels so disappointing because of how poor we were as a team today," Tisdale added.
