EXETER City manager Paul Tisdale was unhappy with the way his side started their Coca-Cola League One defeat at Oldham Athletic, which made it four defeats in a row for the Grecians.

Second-half goals from Oldham strike pair Deane Smalley and Paul Heffernan condemned Exeter to defeat and it is now three matches without scoring for the Devon side.

In previous defeats, Tisdale has taken heart from the performance his side turned in, but at Boundary Park they were second best to an Oldham side who were far from brilliant themselves.

"I think it was a fair result and they deserved their win. I am disappointed that we have lost and disappointed that we didn't play better and we will have to be better next week," Tisdale said.

"I think, the first hour of the game, they were the better, and we were excellent in the last half hour, but we had nothing to lose at that point. At 2-0 down, it is a tall order.

"I wish we had started the game as we finished it, because then we would have had a decent chance. But we didn't. I told the players at half-time that the best element of the first half was that the score was still 0-0 and the fact we hadn't conceded was the only positive I could take from the first half.

"It is not a slight on our defenders because I think our defenders were the better players today, on the whole. We lacked something in the first half and in the ten minutes after the break. I am disappointed with how we played, because it doesn't happen very often."

Asked what aspects of the first half disappointed him most, Tisdale replied: "They forced the game more than we did. It wasn't our defending or our attacking or our set-plays, it was just they were a better side than us and I don't think that was down to anything other than they forced the game with more purpose than we did.

"You can look into that in all sorts of ways, but that sentiment filtered through to all aspects of our play. It is disappointing and I have a right to be disappointed, because they forced the game more than we did for the first hour. For the last half-hour, I thought we were excellent. My issue with that is that it was too late. It is easy to do that at 2-0 down rather than at 0-0."

Tisdale cut a clearly frustrated figure on the touchline throughout much of the first half and was forced to change his tactics, reverting from the starting 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 just to match up with Oldham.

"I made the change after 35 minutes because we clearly weren't competing on an even footing, so I made the change and I was about to make a tactical change when they scored their first goal. Maybe I should have done it at half-time," he added.

"I am pleased with how we ended the game because it showed we have some fight about us. But it was far too little too late, and against a team very focused on three points – as they were – we didn't offer enough to have a chance."