PAUL Tisdale’s 11-year spell in charge of Exeter City shows nice guys do sometimes finish first, according to John Coleman.

The Grecians boss was under pressure earlier in the season as his side struggled.

But the St James Park hierarchy kept faith with Tisdale and a 12-game unbeaten run catapulted them into the play-off places.

Stanley boss Coleman says that shows the advantage of not making rash decisions in the boardroom.

“Paul’s a good manager, a nice fella, and he’s a realist,” said Coleman.

“He knows what’s required at this level and it’s nice to see a manager being backed.

“Possibly a lot of other clubs, when they were bottom of the league in November, would have been calling for his head. But they’ve stayed calm and reaped the rewards.”

“People have to think about what they’re going to do in the future, not what you’ve done in the past.

“Thankfully they kept faith with him that he’d come through the bad patch.”

Coleman accepts that the money involved with some clubs in the lower reaches of the Football League mean patience can sometimes be scarce.

But he is glad to see finances are not the only determining factor in success.

He added: “Repeatedly the teams who aren’t financially well off pull out great results.

“You’ve only got to look at Morecambe, the problems they’ve been going through, and how well Jim (Bentley) and Kenny (McKenna) have done to stabilise things and get some great results, and get them into a great position in the table for their means.

“There will have been a lot of Morecambe fans calling for Jim’s head, and you’re scratching your own head thinking, ‘Why?’.”

“What do they think they are going to achieve? What’s going to be better in the long term?”