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Letters from Wiltshire #27
Written by wessex_exile on Saturday, 16th Jan 2021 16:01

Welcome to 2021, and hopefully a vaccine-driven start to a much better year for everyone – which as you can guess was going to be my introduction two weeks ago. From a selfish perspective, hopefully an improved year for the U’s as well that sees us cement at the very least a play-off spot, but why stop there – don’t mess around with the lottery of play-offs, go straight for it with automatic promotion (who am I kidding). First up in that quest is a tough match against Tranmere Rovers Cambridge United, and no longer with Chuck to help us out. Still, set up for Jevani to put one over on his former club.

[b]Exeter City v Colchester United
Saturday 5th May 2018
Sky Bet League Two (Tier 4)
Attendance 4,615[/b]

The opponents for today’s Letters from Wiltshire #27, Exeter City, know all about the lottery of the play-offs, appearing as losing finalists in 2017, (spoiler alert) 2018 and of course 2020. Being a local trip from here, Exeter City also feature prominently in my memorabilia collection, and this isn’t the first blog I’ve written from St James Park. This should have included our three most recent visits, but on 25th January 2020 a trackside fire put paid to my journey at Tiverton, the pandemic prevented a visit for last season’s play-off match, and again for our most recent 6-1 mauling – though in truth I’m glad I wasn’t there for that one.

[b]Grecians?[/b]
The nickname for Exeter City is a matter of considerable debate. St James Park is located in the parish of St Sidwells (named after St Sidwella, allegedly a native of Devon who was martyred through beheading by reapers at the behest of her own mother-in-law – nice!). The parish is located outside the city walls, and some believe the nickname is a Homerian classical reference to the Greeks laying siege outside the walls of Troy, and/or that the association more specifically relates to antipathy between city boys and St Sidwells boys during the beating of the bounds.

There are a number of etymological suggestions as well: that it is a corruption of the derogatory term “Greasy ‘Uns” for children from St Sidwells, or perhaps based on the Welsh name for Exeter, [i]Caerwysg[/i]. This derived from the Roman fort at Exeter, as Caer = fort and Wysg = Exe, and thus people from Exeter would have been known as ‘Caer Iscuns’ (which at a stretch, if repeated enough times, could morph into ‘Grecians’ over time). A slightly more prosaic explanation could simply be because a jeweller’s shop on Sidwell Street had a clock hanging outside with the name Grecians on its face

[b]It’s not the despair…[/b]
I may have mentioned previously, but where possible I always try and do the first and last match of each season, and although this had really been a season to forget, there me and Alfie were driving down to Exeter on a beautifully warm sunny May day. Well, I say a season to forget, but in truth it had been a season that’s difficult to remember, it had been that underwhelming.

An exceptionally poor start to the season saw the U’s down near the relegation zone by the end of September, and knocked out of the League Cup in the first round at home to Aston Villa in front of the Sky Sports cameras (albeit it was a spirited performance). Although our league form rallied somewhat after that, in rapid succession we went out of the FA Cup in the first round at home to non-league Oxford City, and three days later went out of the EFL Trophy at the group stage, losing 2-0 at Southend United of all places.

However, we did seem to be capitalising on our opportunity to ‘concentrate on the league’, and with only one defeat from then through to the new year, we managed to climb into play-off contention. It wasn’t to last though, and a catastrophic dip in form through to mid-March realistically put paid to any lingering hope of the play-offs, even if mathematically it was still possible. Typical U’s, that despair gave way to faint hope after three wins on the bounce: at Stevenage, home to Luton, and at Forest Green Rovers, the latter including one of the fastest goals I’ve seen scored by a U’s player, as Drey Wright poked home a Sammie Szmodics cross after just 16 seconds.

However, as we know, hope is a capricious mistress, and all that good work was undone by three more successive defeats, at home to Accrington Stanley and Notts County, and away at Lincoln City, followed by a drab 0-0 at home to Swindon, ended any lingering dreams of an unlikely and ill-deserved play-off spot. That defeat at Lincoln would also turn out to be 7’ tall Sam Walker’s last game for the U’s, in technically his third spell at the club.

[b]All caught up[/b]
And so there we were, me and Alfie driving down the M5 for a meaningless match for the U’s, with nothing to play for but pride. Exeter City, on the other hand, were already guaranteed a play-off place, it just remained to be determined where exactly, and therefore how the draw might favour them. 4th place was obviously the priority, giving them second leg home advantage over whoever finished in the final 7th place slot, so I was expecting a tough match against a team with quite a bit still to play for.

With Sam Walker expecting to leave at the end of the season, John McGreal’s side lined up that day

25..Dillon Barnes
2….Ryan Jackson
22..Kane Vincent-Young
6….Frankie Kent
5….Luke Prosser (captain)
14..Brandon Comley
16..Sean Murray (Tom Lapslie 76’)
10..Sammie Szmodics
11..Ryan Gondoh
20..Courtney Senior (Drey Wright 76’)
19..Mikael Mandron (Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe 46’)

Just to emphasise, it really was a beautiful day, not just warm but for early May actually hot. St James Park was undergoing renovation, with the old open away terrace behind the goal demolished, and a new stand under construction on the railway side of the ground opposite us. There was a decent following from the U’s too, with the drum coming along for the ride as well, and our own [b]Durham[/b] making up what must have been nearly 200 of the faithful that afternoon, including Brennan Dickenson taking the opportunity to sit with the fans.

[b]Least said the better to be honest[/b]
In truth, considering Exeter had a lot to play for, when combined with the heat on the day, the match started with a distinct lack of any urgency from both sides, and it almost had a pre-season friendly feel to it. Maybe at the back of their minds, Exeter players weren’t subconsciously holding back to a degree, not wanting to risk injury with the play-offs approaching? Maybe for the U’s players, they just didn’t want to crash and burn on the final day, and would be happy to play out a dull 0-0? Who knows, but it took nearly 15 minutes for the first meaningful action of the match.

Slopping defending from Frankie Kent allowed Liam McAlinden to nip in on the left, loft the ball over the advancing Dillon Barnes and run on to his own ball for what really should have been an open goal – only he chose to cross the ball instead of score, and Robbie Simpson shanked his chance up and over the bar. It was a considerable let-off for the U’s, and should have been a wake-up call, but we hit the snooze button and slumbered on.

Dillon Barnes, who wasn’t to be honest filling me with confidence, did reasonably well diving full-length to keep out a curling long-range shot from Ryan Harley, but it was the sort of regulation save you would expect any ‘keeper to make. It was his dithering with ball in hand that was bothering me most – often racing out looking for the early throw to put the U’s on a counter-attack, but then failing to decide which of the options presented to him to take.

Barnes was beaten late on in the first half, from a looping Simpson header that just evaded him and nestled in the bottom corner, but we were saved by the lineman flagging for offside. We were more or less in line with it, and I’ll be honest it looked very close, but to be fair the Exeter players didn’t protest too much, so I guess it was the correct call. Our only meaningful contribution all half had been a tame effort from Ryan Gondoh (making his full debut) which goalkeeper Christy Pym watched go safely outside the post.

Into the second half, and still no one appeared to really want to give it a go, until we were thrown a very unlikely life-line. Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe had replaced Mikael Mandron at half-time, and was proving to be a bit of a livewire in the box. Going down under a clumsy challenge from Sweeney, the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Sammie Szmodics claimed the chance for himself, but I really wish he hadn’t. Pym dived to his right, but Sammie’s effort was weak and straight down the middle, and gave Pym the chance to clear it with his trailing foot.

https://flic.kr/p/2kofvs7
[b]My video of [u]that[/u] penalty[/b]

That just about summed up our day to be honest, and barely ten or so minutes later we were to pay for the miss. Having already hit the post from a Dean Moxey effort, Sweeney then did well down the Exeter right, sending an inviting cross into the box. Frankie Kent looked in two minds, perhaps expecting Barnes to come out and claim it. Barnes stayed rooted to his line presumably expecting Kent to deal with it, and Simpson took full advantage to run in between and head home easily. It was no more than we deserved to be honest.

McGreal changed things around a few minutes later, bringing on Lapslie and Wright for Murray and Senior in a double substitution, and it did at least inject a bit of urgency into the U’s. A speculative (mishit or deflected possibly?) cross from Ogedi-Uzokwe looked to be sneaking under the crossbar, which required Pym to palm it over the bar, and a half-chance for Prosser required a defter touch than he had to successfully lob Pym in the dying seconds – that one finished on the roof of the net.

And that was that, bowing out of our 2017/18 campaign with a whimper in 13th place and our worst league finish for 23 years…

[b]Exeter 1 (Robbie Simpson 71’) Colchester United 0[/b]

With their victory, Exeter claimed top slot in the play-offs, and after a comfortable 0-0 away at Lincoln, and then a resounding 3-1 victory in the second leg, went on to play Coventry City in the final in front of over 50,000 fans. Coventry had finished 6th, five points behind Exeter, but it didn’t show as they comfortably beat the Grecians 3-1 in the final – the Exeter consolation coming in the last minute of the game.

Sam Walker did indeed leave in the summer for a bench-warming appointment at Championship side Reading. Over the following two seasons he made just 14 appearances for the Royals, half of which were as the ‘rotation’ goalkeeper for cup matches. However, just before Christmas he joined Blackpool on a one-week emergency loan after Blackpool’s goalkeeper Chris Maxwell tested positive for coronavirus, and this was extended by another seven days on 30th December, so he’ll be playing in their match at Bristol Rovers today (alongside Luke Garbutt as it happens).

If you can bring yourself, here are the Exeter City highlights from YouTube.

Up the U’s




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