Blame It On The Tele - Exeter City's TV Virus
Everyone had that classmate at school. The one with so many allergies you might as well have wrapped him in a giant bubble and passed his tablets through a hatch, whose list of absent days read more like a bingo card.
Exeter City Football Club may not have a limp, a mysterious rash or need to have their meals specially prepared, but like that constantly absent child they seem to suffer from an extensive list of allergies that have stifled their development
The most severe of Exeter City's ailments was an eleven-year and twenty-gam
e case of camera shyness, which was finally cured on Boxing Day 2007.
Whether it was Man United, Plymouth Argyle, and even the Play Off Final at Wembley City always seemed to come unstuck under the glare of the cameras. On twenty different occasions the club somehow contrived to lose or draw when the BBC, Sky or any other interested parties with two commentators and a camera, showed their unwelcome faces.
Play Off hopes were derailed, FA Cup runs were instantly halted and plenty of miserable performances were there for the nation to see. The run began with a demolition by local rivals Plymouth Argyle in 1996 and it was all downhill from there. It was a long and heavily drawn out 14 games before Exeter managed to celebrate a victory in front of the cameras, although it took extra time and penalties before the Grecians slithered past Oxford in the Conference play off semi final second leg.
The worrying fact was that with the scores still level at the end of 90 minutes this win could be classed as yet another match where technically Exeter City were not victorious. Just as Chelsea fans dismissed their penalty shoot-out defeat to Charlton in the middle of their unbeaten home run, Exeter City players may well have assumed their their winless run hadn't ended, going another four games without a victory. This run included their next game on television, a heartbreaking play off final defeat, which confirmed another season of Non League football.
There can’t have been many clubs whose fans dreaded the announcement that Setanta would be showing 79 matches from the Blue Square Premier this season. Grecian fans were left counting the points that could be lost with more television appearances and cursing their luck at the rare television appearances we would have clocked up as a league team.
The invention of Sky+ meant that these rare forays into the minds and televisions of the nation could be recorded for posterity. Or, as in the case of my family, instantly removed and hurriedly erased from our conscience as we arrived back home disenchanted and disappointed after another defeat.
Then, on Boxing Day 2007 and more importantly on the box, Exeter City miraculously broke their TV duck with an enthralling 4-3 win over local league rivals Torquay. Not only was this duck broken it was taken home, marinated and served up to 6,000 ecstatic home fans.
The hoodoo had been removed and wouldn't you just know it, another victory followed 3 weeks later with a 2-0-league victory over Oxford. And as City prepared for our fifth television appearance of the season at York I struggled to convince myself before kick off (and just after writing this piece) that it wouldn't just be another defeat and reminded myself that we have won on TV and there was no need to fear the worst.
Like the ever-absent schoolchild, I was hoping our allergies would stay away long enough for us to achieve something and not derail our future prospects. A 3-2 defeat duly followed.
City may have got over their serious television virus, but it seems like all annoying ailments it just won't go away!
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