Taylor frustrated by Exeter's international absences

Exeter City manager Matt Taylor says he is unhappy at having to play his side's League Two fixture at Bristol Rovers without his two international players.

Full-back Vincent Harper has been called up by Kenya while fellow defender Ed James has been picked for the Wales Under-21 squad.

The pair will miss Exeter's next few games, starting with the trip to Bristol Rovers on Saturday (15:00 BST).

While Premier League and Championship sides will not play during the international break, which has been extended by a further week, Leagues One and Two are still playing.

Under EFL rules a side can only have a game postponed if they have three or more players away on international duty.

"That's a big blow for us," Taylor told BBC Radio Devon.

"They're two standout players and two starting players for us so we're going to have to re-jig a few things."

Harper has started six of Exeter's seven league matches this season while James has been ever-present for each fixture, playing in all but 11 minutes of each fixture.

Taylor's side can ill-afford to be weakened, having failed to win any of their last five League Two matches.

They have scored just two goals in that time - in a 1-1 draw at Barnet on 1 September and in a 2-1 loss at York City a week before.

The Exeter boss feels sides should be able to call games off if they are impacted by call-ups, but also recognises it could cause fixture pile-ups further on in the season.

"Some teams will be weaker, some teams will be stronger," he added.

"We feel we're weaker right now through no fault of our own, so it's difficult for me to go against that.

"It should be a blanket couple of weekends where there's no fixtures, but I'm also conscious that then if we're playing three games a week in a compacted period of time what effect that would have on the squad further down the line.

"If you've got availability at that time then it's fine, but if at those moments you're struggling then there's no right or wrong.

"It becomes a bit lopsided in terms of the league and I think a lot of teams will be without some important players, and we certainly feel that's our position.

"We've got another player on standby, so we don't quite know yet about what can happen the following week.

"I would have rather had Ed and Vinny available for Bristol Rovers away."