Tisdale tries to use every means possible to gain home success for Exeter

Regular readers of this column will recall me writing about psychology in sport last week and how I believe Exeter City's inconsistent home form is a mental thing, rather than anything to do with their ability.

It was interesting, therefore, to hear that, before last Friday's game, the Grecians approached the Football League to ask if they could wear their sky blue away kit for the home clash with Accrington Stanley.

In wearing that kit, the Grecians have won ten times on their travels, a club record.

Obviously, manager Paul Tisdale feels it is a "lucky" kit and wanted to experiment by wearing it at home, but the Football League vetoed their request.

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It was an interesting idea. Traditionalists would not have been happy to see City wearing anything other than the red and white stripes, but, as Tisdale has said on numerous occasions this season, he will try anything to reverse his side's home results.

Although said in jest, he mentioned driving to Leeds the night before a home game after winning at York and the squad staying in a hotel, or spending the immediate pre-match driving up and down the M5 for a couple of hours, which often happens before an away game.

However, the idea of wearing the away kit at home reminded me of something Alex Inglethorpe once told me when he was manager at Exeter – again with a psychological angle.

In one of our off-the-record conversations, we were talking about a particular player and why it did not work out for him at a certain club. Inglethorpe's answer was interesting and gleaned from experience.

He said that sometimes a player joins a club and everything feels right. From something as big as the city or town a player lives in, to something as small as the kit supplier. Shirts made by a certain manufacturer felt more comfortable than one made by another, and Inglethorpe was adamant that made a difference.

Colour was also a big thing for him. Inglethorpe believed he always performed better when playing in red, which may explain why the majority of his career was spent with relative success at Leyton Orient and then, to a lesser degree, Exeter.

Perhaps that also explains his decision to leave Tottenham Hotspur recently and accept a role as reserve-team coach with the Reds of Liverpool!

Either way, it is good to see someone else who cut his teeth at St James' Park furthering and enhancing his career.

It is not only players that have gone on and done well after leaving Exeter, but coaches as well.