DISJOINTED, lacklustre and totally lacking in creative invention. That, in a nutshell, sums up Exeter City's performance in their dreadful 1-0 home defeat to League One's bottom club Stockport County on Saturday.

At a time when the Grecians really needed to step up to the plate and fight for the cause, they were sadly found wanting. As a result, Jemal Johnson's blistering strike 13 minutes from time not only condemned City to defeat, but sent them tumbling into the relegation zone for the first time this season.

Now, it is all about character, guts and determination. The Grecians must show it in bucket loads if they are to hold on to their status as a League One club. Many more performances like the one against Stockport will lead to one thing only – relegation.

To be fair to City, they could not – and rarely can be – criticised for a lack of effort. But the truth of the matter is that in the final third they were awful. Richard Logan toiled and fought a sometimes lonely battle up front, but he got little change out of County's centre halves. Alongside him, Stuart Fleetwood was – again – hugely disappointing and offered extremely little as an attacking threat, while Exeter's most creative player, Ryan Harley, has been anonymous since his match-winning performance against Leeds United on January 16. Harley is a class act and, with him off form, Exeter look nothing more than an average team at best. The sooner Harley returns to form, the happier everyone will be.

Despite performances being generally OK when manager Paul Tisdale has played his preferred 3-5-2 formation on home soil, he decided to change it for the visit of the Hatters. The Devon side started in a 4-1-3-2 system, which changed to a 4-4-2 at half-time as Exeter created little of note in a dour first half. The second was not much better, but with Richard Duffy and Joe Burnell as your central midfielders, you are not going to get much invention. Don't get me wrong, neither player did badly – Duffy, I thought, was City's best player on the day – but, in a game Exeter really needed to win, the shape of the team just did not look right.

Exeter did come close to scoring with the first chance of the match six minutes in, but Logan's fierce volley was superbly tipped onto the crossbar by visiting goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams.

County threatened next, with the lively Jabo Ibehre linking up well with strike partner George Donnelly, but Donnelly's shot was blocked by Matt Taylor. As Exeter struggled to clear their lines, Richie Partridge was presented with a good chance, but he headed straight at Andy Marriott.

Fleetwood failed to make the most of a great chance when Exeter found themselves with four attackers to County's one defender, with the striker's cross straight on to the head of the one man in blue. Donnelly then saw his shot saved by Marriott after Ibehre had capitalised on some uncertainty in the Exeter defence.

Liam Sercombe brought the half to a close with a shot dragged wide of the upright, but, if the first half was bad, the second was even worse. Sercombe missed Exeter's best chance soon after the restart as he dragged a shot wide after good play by Logan and Fleetwood before Harley failed to make the most of an indirect free-kick inside the penalty box after Fon Williams had picked up a back-pass. Instead of Exeter going for goal, he opted to dink the ball to the back post, where it was cleared with alarming ease.

As fans from both sides struggled to stay awake, the only goal of the game came 13 minutes from time. It was County's first genuine attack of the second period, but it was a good one with a few passes being exchanged before the ball was worked out to Johnson on the right wing. He cut inside his marker and unleashed a low, swerving shot from 25 yards which Marriott got a hand to, but could not stop from finding the bottom corner.

You could sense then that that was going to be it, and so it proved. The most worrying thing was the visible sight of Exeter heads dropping late in the game, although Logan did test Fon Williams with a rasping shot that the goalkeeper palmed behind for a corner.

New loanee Marcus Haber had been introduced on the hour mark for his first taste of English football and he had one half-chance near the end, but headed wide of an upright.

A bad, bad day at the office for City and the boos that rung around the stadium said it all. Now though, is not the time to panic. It was merely one game and three points dropped and Exeter have plenty of time and matches in which to get out of their predicament.

The first task Tisdale has, though, is to lift his players' heads and raise their spirits. Confidence has taken a huge dent, but the Grecians have not suddenly become a bad team overnight. Some players need to quickly refind their form, others need to stand up and be counted. Others have to pull their fingers out and stop believing their own hype. Starting tomorrow against Bristol Rovers.