Exeter City v Southend United

Grecians boss Paul Tisdale will be hoping for a change of luck after four defeats in a row and will be able to recall striker Stuart Fleetwood who is hoping to dedicate a goal to his late grandfather.

23-year-old Fleetwood pulled out of last Saturday's 2-0 defeat at the Latics at the last moment after it emerged that Dennis Fleetwood was gravely ill. Having made a dash back to Gloucester to be at the 72-year-old's side, his grandfather passed away later that day.

Stuart told www.thisisexeter.co.uk: "I got the phone call on Saturday morning telling me that my grandad only had a couple of hours to live. I jumped on the train from Manchester all the way back to Gloucester to join my family by his side."

Exeter City are slipping ever closer to the relegation places after suffering their worst sequence of results since the 2002/03 relegation campaign. The Grecians wasted a glorious opportunity to arrest their downturn in fortunes by slipping to their fourth straight defeat at Oldham Athletic.

In recent weeks City have faced three out of form sides in Bristol Rovers, Brighton and Oldham and have now lost to each of them. The Grecians boasted a seven-point cushion between themselves and the drop zone following their 3-1 win at Stockport County three weeks ago. Just when they thought they had moved clear of the relegation battle and reached the comfort zone, reality is beginning to bite once more.

The worrying thing is that City are losing games against teams in and around them in Coca-Cola League One. And their only saving grace at the moment is most of the sides in the bottom eight of the division are also struggling to pick up results.

Paul Tisdale's side have not scored in their last three games and they didn't look like altering that trend at Boundary Park. Bertie Cozic shaved the crossbar with a speculative effort, Adam Stansfield blazed wide and Matt Taylor sent a free header over the crossbar. That was as good as it got and City only raised their game once they had shipped two goals in the opening 13 minutes of the second half.

While they struggled to create chances, what was more disappointing was the soft nature of the goals they conceded against an Oldham side who have been sinking faster than the Titanic in recent weeks. After squandering possession cheaply Dean Furman swept the ball into the feet of Deane Smalley and he lashed a rasping drive beyond the reach of Andy Marriott.

If the first goal was disappointing, then the second was a shocker. Danny Whitaker lofted a hopeful ball up field and Andy Marriott elected not to come and deal with it. That would prove the wrong decision as Paul Heffernen raced into the box, cut inside Taylor and watched his shot deflect off the defender and loop over the veteran keeper.

Tisdale admitted in the build-up to this game that he was not looking to add to his squad in the January transfer window. But on the evidence of this, he might well have to think again. City are lacking a regular goalscorer and while their midfield look at ease spraying passes around there is a chronic lack of width and decent delivery from wide areas. To make matters worse the team are leaking sloppy goals and they have now conceded 21 times in their 11 away matches this season.

The Grecians could count themselves unfortunate to have lost to Brighton and Bristol Rovers in the last two games, but on Saturday they could have few complaints. They only registered one shot on target all afternoon and that was a weak Stansfield effort easily dealt with by, yes it is he, little Darryl Flahavan.

City lack ideas in the final third and, despite fielding three strikers, there was no cutting edge. Given some of the precision passing football City have played this season, they simply failed to do themselves justice on Saturday.

Tisdale was hoping his side would come flying out of the traps, but the opening exchanges were scrappy and disjointed. Cozic's 25-yard shot brushed the top of the bar, while at the other end Whitaker was twice off target with rasping drives. Stansfield failed to get a proper connection on Barry Corr's knock down and the ball dropped invitingly into the hands of keeper Flahavan.

Tisdale, who had started the game playing a 4-3-3, switched to a 4-4-2 on 35 minutes in a bid to breathe fresh life into his side. But still the service to the frontmen was missing.

City survived a scare at the start of the second half as Keigan Parker scrambled an angled shot narrowly wide before the opener arrived. Furman set up Smalley to unleash a blistering drive into the bottom corner and stun the Grecians. Heffernan heaped more misery on the lacklustre visitors when his run from deep ended with a deflected shot dropping over the outstretched glove of Marriott.

'Can we play you every week?' was the taunt from the Latics fans as they sensed a rare home win.

Tisdale changed to a 3-4-3 and Stansfield headed over the crossbar following good work from Scott Golbourne and Steve Tully. To their credit City piled on the pressure in the closing stages and Taylor headed over, while Logan nodded straight at Flahavan. But there was no way through and the 335 away fans were left to reflect on another defeat.

Oldham Athletic v Exeter City
Starting Line-ups 37 Flahavan 3 Jacobson 12 Lomax 16 Gregan 26 Marrow 7 Whitaker 8 Smalley 20 Stephens 21 Black 28 Colbeck 0 Heffernan Substitutes 1 Brill 14 Furman 17 Parker 19 Lee 22 Brooke 25 Rowney 30 Blackman	Starting Line-ups 1 Marriott 3 Duffy 5 Seaborne 6 Taylor 11 Golbourne 4 Russell 7 Harley 14 Cozic 9 Stansfield 12 Corr 16 Stewart Substitutes 2 Tully 18 Saunders 0 Logan 21 Dunne 22 Sercombe 27 Jones 29 Archibald-Henville

(Report supplied by www.thisisexeter.co.uk)

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