EXETER City manager Paul Tisdale labelled his side's defending in the Devon derby defeat to Plymouth Argyle as suicidal.
The Grecians, who have the fifth worst defensive record in the division and have only kept three clean sheets all season, were slightly unfortunate to concede the first goal of the afternoon as Bobby Reid's miscued volley fell kindly into the path of Reuben Reid.
However, after the break, Matt Oakley allowed Lewis Alessandra to get goal side of him in the area before he brought him down for a soft penalty and then the Grecians gave the ball the opportunity to bounce into the area for Reuben Reid to fire home goal number three.
"If I want to sum it up, it was suicide to defend that way," said Tisdale. "To defend like that made the game almost impossible and it makes everything else in the game look like we were below-par. Well, we weren't that far below-par we just defended, in three very important moments, very poorly and I can't defend the team in that regard. They (Plymouth) put the ball in the back of the net, but we gifted them those opportunities. It was really disappointing afternoon."
Despite being critical of how his team defended, Tisdale stopped short of labelling the performance terrible throughout.
City showed good battling qualities to get themselves level on the stroke of half-time, thanks to a close range shot from Arron Davies, and worked hard.
As a result Tisdale, despite being upset by the result, didn't castigate his players in his post-match press conference.
"I can stand here and get carried along with how I feel, because how I feel is terribly disappointed," said Tisdale. "I love to vent that disappointment by being very critical, but I'm not very critical.
"My job is always to make sure I don't let emotion taint how I speak about my team. I think they were committed. They just didn't do well enough to win a game of football.
"It was about the goals," added Tisdale. "It would be very easy for me to be very critical and downbeat about my team because we have been beat and it looks a comfortable beating.
"But I thought the first half was very evenly contested. I didn't think we were at our best, but we certainly weren't terrible.
"I can defend my team, because I thought they gave 100 per cent– they were fully committed. They weren't perfect, but they weren't that bad. But it is very hard to defend the team when they have defended so poorly at crucial times."
