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The Agony and the Exeter City Ecstasy

Plainmoor, Torquay, 2:10pm –Monday 5th May 2008 - Torquay 1 (3) – 0 (1) Exeter

Dejected, disillusioned and incredibly despondent, is the only way to describe it. After driving over 3500 miles since August from Cardiff to follow Exeter City in over 25 games. Begrudgingly handing over countless £5.30 toll bridge fares and purchasing gallons of petrol to follow City home and away  was it seriously going to end like this?  Anti-climax doesn’t come close.

It’s the despair AND the hope that kills you!

The former Brentford manager David Webb once described the play-offs as “a hell of a cup competition where you've got to play 46 games just to reach the semi-final!" And he’s right. I do not want even consider the idea that  come late Bank Holiday Monday afternoon all that hard work and endeavour put in through those 46 games could be worth nothing and we will be planning our sixth season as a Non-League club.

Exeter vs Torquay - A Momentous Encounter?

 It seems the public can’t get enough of their ‘moments’. In recent years we’ve witnessed the ‘100 greatest scary moments’, ‘100 greatest sexy moments’, ‘100 greatest tearjerkers’ and countless others spread over four or five hours on late night Channel 4.

There is a desire to see thousands of hours of events chopped up and diluted into a convenient countdown of ‘moments’.

The Away Day Blues

“You travel with a certain amount of pre-match optimism- this is dangerous. Although you are on the road, away from your usual environs, you must try to keep a grip on reality. Just because you are making the effort doesn’t mean the players are going to” (Taken from ‘How To Support A Crap Football Team’ by Steve Crancher)

Robert Louis Stevenson once said “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” and I’m sure football fans around the country echo his sentiments. How often is an enjoyable away trip instantly ruined by a few early goals with no hope of a comeback?

Stranger Than Fiction - Mansfield Town FC

Easter may have come early this year and taken many people by surprise but Mansfield fans would have been far more alarmed to discover this morning that April Fool's Day had not followed suit. Fans were up in arms that plans for their club, unveiled this morning in a leaked email, were not some newspaper hoax and in fact might be about to turn Mansfield into the biggest joke of all.

For fans of the Stags and football fans in general there is nothing remotely funny about this potential takeover with consequences seemingly too far fetched for any April fool’s day. Last week a Derby Fan humorously compared the goings on at his club to Harchester United, the team in the Sky One football soap Dream Team. I’m about to explain how, in the case of Mansfield Town FC, being compared to a fictional TV soap is one joke that’s about to go too far.

Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow

Derby County may be helping define the term ‘season to forget’ but a quick look at last weekend’s team sheet shows they have a squad whose  time  at the club may also be easily forgotten. Of their 16-man squad the average time since each player signed is an incredibly low 8.8 months, that’s 35 and a half weeks! Where are the players that the club has developed and helped shine? - the players the fans could count on when the chips were down. Where then are their heroes?

Remember Crystal Palace’s relegation? Their supporters had fans’ favourites like Andy Johnson who battled and helped fight their cause and admirably hung around when their fate was confirmed. Last season Sheffield United had Paddy Kenny and Rob Hulse. Who can Derby fans say are their ‘heroes’?

Lies, Damn Lies and Exeter City

Victory has not historically been a friend of Exeter City Football Club. Our relationship has been fraught to say the least, always threatening to spill over into a full blow scrap.

But there could well be better news for Exeter City fans ahead of Saturday’s clash with bottom side Droylsden, if statistics revealed this week are to be believed. A new study has discovered that teams that play in red are more successful at home than those whose home shirts are white or blue.

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

Exeter City - The Envy Of The Premiership?

“I'll be wanting United to win but ours is a real football club, a real football team." FC United’s General Manager Andy Walsh.

AFC Wimbledon, FC United and now AFC Liverpool. Real Football Teams. Grassroots clubs being reborn at the lowest level by real supporters disillusioned with how their football experience has degenerated. They wanted and needed something else. They were fed up with 11.30am kick off’s, vastly inflated season ticket prices and people in charge of their club’s who didn’t have their best interests at heart. They longed for the Exeter City fan experience.