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Exeter City: 10 Things We Could Learn

Exeter City were last night undone by a quality second-half display from Bournemouth and with 10 games left this season I have put together 10 things I hope City can learn from last night's display to take with them into the promotion push, starting with Bradford at home on Saturday.

Exeter City: Have we snapped up the next Ledley King?

Troy Archibald-Henville is not just a financial nightmare for anyone looking to splash out on a replica shirt sporting the centre-back’s name but the on-loan Spurs youngster, touted by many at White Hart Lane as the next Ledley King, is also Exeter City’s main addition during the winter window.

Exeter City -The wonder of the Big Mac

Brian Clough famously said: "If God wanted us to play football in the air, then he would have built a pitch in the clouds".

We all love seeing City playing passing, intelligent and creative football, and this season we have won with style without needing to 'play football in the air'. This has attracted the attention of many pundits (and scouts), keen to see a free flowing footballing side who have on occasions passed our way through the opposition.

It seems Paul Tisdale’s trademark is the patient, passing style of football and this current line-up has his trademark stamped all over it.

But sometimes to be successful you need a Plan B. (or Rory Delap) On many occasions this season players and fans have agreed that at times we have lacked that second option when things aren’t going our way.

Take The Foot Out of Football

“People were talking about bubbles bursting but my simple answer to a bubble bursting is to blow another bubble," Hull boss Phil Brown said this week.

As a Exeter City fan I’ve have my fingers crossed that we will be able to do the same. Our bubble is currently coming along quite nicely, on the back of a 3-1 away win at Port Vale and a six game unbeaten streak we sit in 5th place in League Two and could even go top with a win at Barnet on Saturday. The garden is looking incredibly rosy from an Exeter perspective and when that bubble does burst I hope it’s just a case of blowing another one, as it’s currently an amazing time to be a City fan.

Thank Heavens for Harley

He may be The Times’ Player of the Weekend for League Two and City’s second top scorer this season from midfield but why has Ryan Harley, Exeter's signing from Western Super Mare made such a difference to our side?

6 Strikers, 9 Games, 1 Goal - Exeter's Number Game

Football is an unpredictable game. We all know that. But sometimes it’s unfortunately all too predictable.

We all know when an ex-player returns to play against his old club it always seems to end in a goal and Sean Canham’s return to St James Park on Saturday resulted in, not only a goal, but a 94th minute equaliser to deny Exeter all three points.

Ironically Canham has scored more League goals in his three substitute appearances for Notts County than any of our six forwards have managed in nine starts in all competitions.

Farewell Friend

Like many football fans throughout Britain I watched in amazement on Monday as Fergie smuggled Berbatov into Old Trafford while across Manchester Robinho became the most expensive player in British football history as the transfer window slammed shut.

But it was a far less glamorous deal that really interested Exeter fans as our promising young left back George Friend moved to Wolves on deadline day in an deal thought to be worth around £350k with plenty of additional fees. Wolves were thought to have faced stiff competition from other Premiership and Championship clubs to sign Friend but his transfer news came completely out of the blue for City fans.

Long Distance Lovers

Take a quick walk down Exeter high street on any given afternoon and I’m sure you’d encounter a fair few people showing off their “Adebayor 25” or “Ronaldo 7” shirts in tribute to their unhappy idols.

Why not stop and ask the Man United ‘fans’ wandering through the City centre whether they make the 500-mile round trip to the ‘Theatre Of Dreams’ every fortnight?

Or enquire whether they’ve even been to Manchester before? And don’t hold your breath.

These are the long-distance lovers to whom the Theatre Of Dreams is just that.

The Fanzone Challenge - An Exeter 08/09 Perspective

Stoke City’s blogger Matthew Jones last week challenged all Fanzine Fanzone writers to follow his lead and answer 15 questions on themselves and their clubs ambitions and expectations for the coming season. I thought I’d follow suit and give my very own hopes and dreams for 08/09.

We Really Did Do It This Time!

Whilst waiting in the (huge) toilet queue in Wembley at half time on Sunday my friend declared that if we could hold onto our 1-0 lead it would be his best moment in football.

We didn’t dwell on the subject. Maybe we feared we would be cursing our team. We knew we couldn’t even contemplate the sweet possibility of victory when we knew so well that Exeter City could well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.