Fanzine Fanzone - Times Online - WBLG

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

Peter Evans — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:53:03 +0000

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.

Having initially signed on loan for a month the deal was quickly turned into a season-long deal after a number of commanding performances in which he showed many similarities to King. He is not only tall and athletic but also quick on the ground, superb in the air and has had to be substituted due to injuries in his last two starts. Sound familiar?

Joking aside, Archibald-Henville (or Archie as many fans have chosen to name him) had an unforgettable debut at Dagenham last month. Having only officially joined the club that afternoon the defender put in a faultless display as the Grecians got back to winning ways with a superb 2-1 victory in the East End.

The signing of Archie was vital after the injury and loss of form of Matt Taylor and Danny Seaborne respectively. The two were linked with January moves away from the club but their various problems may have stopped interested clubs from stepping in for either of our centre-backs.

With these three on our books we seem well covered in this department for the run-in which will include a large number of rescheduled games including last night’s home meeting with Port Vale.

One player who is thought to be the target of scouts from a number of clubs, including Ipswich Town, is keeper Paul Jones. Jones has been at the club for many years and has had a rather eventful time to say the least. A penalty save with his first touch back in 2004 set the tone for his five years in Devon. A man-of-the-match performance and a clean sheet at Old Trafford in 2005 soon followed and a place in the record books was achieved in 2007 after he became the first keeper to save a penalty at the new Wembley.

But his recent run of form is easily Jones’ best at the club. At times he has single-handedly kept City in games with some unbelievable saves and his last gasp penalty save in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Barnet shows just how vital he has become to the Grecians.

One player whose form has not been so impressive this season is Marcus Stewart. Probably City’s biggest ever signing of the last few years, big things were expected of the former Ipswich and Sunderland striker The fact that he was voted last season’s Player of the Year at League One Yeovil was given as evidence that he was far from a fading force.

But so far the striker has failed to live up to expectations. One goal from open play in 26 appearances, despite starting the majority of the games in a striking position, is a poor return for a player with 192 career goals above League 2 level. Stewart and City fans alike will hope something changes in the coming months as Paul Tisdale continues to search for his best striking combination.

Peter Evans

Exeter City -The wonder of the Big Mac

Peter Evans — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:25:35 +0000

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.

Tisdale's substitutions this season have often been like-for-like. He may take off one speedy, hard-working striker (Stansfield) for another (Watson) or haul off a creative but slower striker (Stewart) for another (Basham) and the side can get stuck in the same rut.

However against Lincoln we found our Plan B and it not only got us out of jail but could ultimately prove to be a vital moment in this season.

An experimental line-up saw our two most creative midfielders playing behind Watson and Stansfield; two short and quick strikers with the obvious intention of running at a huge Lincoln backline that included own goal specialist Frank Sinclair.

74 minutes in it was obvious that this plan was dead on its feet. We were one nil down and struggling to create any real chances. Neil Saunders, an out-and-out winger, had started on the right hand flank and our other creative winger Dean Moxey was restricted at wing-back, but wingers can only do so much with two small strikers ahead of them.

Enter Craig McAllister.

The target man and lower league journeyman had not started a league game this season so plenty of eyebrows were raised when Tisdale whipped out his Big Mac but the Scotsman's impact was immediate. Our side not only gained a focal point of the attack but the afternoon swung in City's favour.

Tisdale sent on a left-back Murray and pushed our previous left-back Moxey upfront alongside the double substitutes of Basham and McAllister. It had an instant impact. Two minutes after McAllister's arrival he rose to meet an exquisite Gill throw with a superb header for his first Football League goal: 1-1.

Fifteen minutes of explosive football followed, with City a changed side. McAllister and Moxey were performing impeccably upfront but without a win in four games, City needed a winner.

A string of chances went begging and just as it looked like we would have to make do with a draw, we grabbed an unforgettable 92nd minute winner. Basham and McAllister superbly flicked on a ball into the path of Moxey who fire homed in front of an ecstatic Big Bank and the product of the Exeter youth team enjoyed every minute of the chaos that followed.

From a manager’s perspective tactical changes like these must be incredibly satisfying. It showed just how well Tisdale reads the game and he knew exactly what needed to be injected into the side to turn the game around.

We also shouldn’t underestimate the importance of having a back-up plan. Just look at last season’s Play Off win at Torquay. Tisdale sent on Logan, Harley and Carlisle who not only changed the match but ultimately sent City to Wembley again. The success of his tinkering won’t be lost on Tisdale and we could well be seeing this Plan B rolled out on many occasions as the season wears on.

That last-gasp win, coupled with a similarly vital late strike from Panther the week previously, the electrical failure at Dagenham, an FA Cup upset and an 6-1 home defeat highlights just how interesting and intriguing our first season back in the Football League has been.

Before our relegation we sat (or stood) through years of tedious mediocrity and spent many a season ambling between 12th and 16th position in the old Division Three with little chance of either relegation or promotion and many a season over by Christmas. Whatever happens in the coming months it seems following City this season will be anything but dull.

Peter Evans

Take The Foot Out of Football

Peter Evans — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:00:47 +0100

“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.

All this positive talk about Hull and Exeter’s rosy outlook inspired me to wonder how little we hear of the positive side of football. TV critic Charlie Brooker once wrote how positive things “are far duller to read and write about than the rubbish, the stupid, the grotesque, the gowdy” and it seems the press are always keen to put the foot into football.

It’s frequently hammered home that everything you once loved about the sport in the so-called ‘golden years’ has evaporated and you’re just left with a horrible mess and nostalgic dreams of the ‘good old days’. Whether the blame is laid at the door of inflated ticket prices, foreigners, money-grabbing players, chairmen, the Big 4’ or just Mike Ashley it seems to make little difference.

Maybe listening to Alan Green has rotted my brain but it’s time we heard more about the brighter side of football, because plenty of supporters are having the time of their lives following their teams. For these fans those ‘golden years’ everyone nostalgically harps back to weren’t so much 'golden' - more a ‘muddy-puddle-brown’.

Would Hull fans swap their current heady days for those nostalgic weeks in 1998 when they were rooted to 92nd position in the Football League? Ditto Swansea fans in the upper realms of the Championship. Are they reminiscing about that classic Division Three relegation dogfight with Exeter in 2003? Try telling them football has gone to the dogs.

The so called ‘downfall’ of football the media bleats on about couldn't be further from the truth in terms of my football viewing experience. Supporting Exeter City isn’t rubbish, stupid or even grotesque.

I’m not going to belittle you by suggesting that following a small club is the bee’s knees. We don’t own St James Park and haven’t paid a significant fee for a player since 2003. Just as our better players start to achieve something resembling hero status a bigger club will inevitably snap them up (two of our best players have left for the Championship in the past 12 months). We have been millions in debt and days from folding and our history of financial issues reads like an A-Z of football club mismanagement: Creditors Voluntary Agreement, Administration, Inland Revenue disputes and threats of liquidation,

We’ve clinched last minute deals to save the club's future, had countless trips to Court, and that’s without mentioning our notorious ex-chairmen…. As our fans spillled onto the pitch, many in tears, following our relegation in 2003 it looked as if we’d seen the last ever competitive match by an Exeter City team with the club facing an extremely bleak future.

But here we are sitting in 5th position in League Two, financially stable and on the crest of a real wave. To fans of most clubs our situation wouldn’t seem remotely exciting, wonderful or amazing.

But it really is. Where do I start? I’ve already written plenty on the positives at Exeter City but in the best part of 150 words:

We can relate to our players who appreciate us and who are not only approachable but also friendly and most importantly love our club. We are a community club with a focus on youth and are financially sustainable. We have an ambitious young manager who plays football the right way, a talented squad who fit that same bill. We can afford to watch our side home and away without inducing our own credit-crunch. Our games kick off at 3pm on Saturdays and 7:45pm on Tuesdays, the way football was meant to be. We can stand on the terracing with our friends and move around as we please and our support feel likes it really makes a difference. Our club is run by the fans for the fans, and we aren’t treated like customers. There’s no scandal, no idiots about to sack out manager. Most importantly we have a club to be proud of.

I could go on…(and probably will at some point)

Maybe fans of other teams on the Fanzone (and any City fan) will post below (and the bloggers to focus their articles) on just why supporting their club is great, even if that thought process might be a bit of a struggle for some.

Maybe then people will realise that being a football fan for some supporters is probably as much fun you could have without being locked in a room with Joe Kinnear, a microphone and a swear-box!

Peter Evans

Picture used with thanks to Cheggers

Thank Heavens for Harley

Peter Evans — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:17:19 +0100

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?

It has been argued that the crucial element to any successful midfield partnership is variety. For every Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack you need a Claude Makelele doing the dirty week. Most of the successful centre midfield partnerships have relied on an exotic blend of attacking and defending. (This has also been cited as a reason for the failed Gerrard/Lampard England partnership) Would Makelele’s Chelsea career have flourished playing alongside Nicky Butt for example?

You would be hard pushed to say yes. You'd probably say think it would be lacking that crucial attacking element but in City’s case it seems we've bypassed this thought process for countless seasons.

In recent campaigns our central midfield selections have varied from clogger to 'water carrier’. You know the sort of player, they are two-a-penny in the lower leagues. Expect them to tackle a lot (sometimes with limited success), have a good engine and run around a lot. They are most likely renowned for copious amounts of shouting and pointing.

The story of Jon Challinor highlights my point. He publicly admitted that his favoured position was as the attacking midfielder. As a fan it was incredibly frustrating to watch the huge chasm between our deep lying defensive midfield and the strikers on countless occasions, while our most creative attacking midfielder was stuck out on the flank.

You almost got the feeling that a succession of managers felt that the centre of the park required some bite, some tenacity and chose to leave the attacking to the strikers and the wingers. But it took a transformation in the engine room to eventually fire us out of the Blue Square Premier.

Whilst our full backs, strikers and wingers moved onto pastures new, no one seemed particularly interested in any of our posse of central midfielders. In recent seasons our dynamic duos have included Andy Taylor, Buckle, Ampadu and Cronin. Undoubtedly committed, hard working and energetic but essentially six defensive minded players and with an aggregate goal tally of 26 goals in over 540 starts for the club!

Then we signed Ryan Harley. A free transfer signing from Western Super Mare following a trial, would hardly seem the sort of credentials for a crucial team player but the ginger wizard has proved invaluable.

He has scored 5 goals in his brief City career but has created many more and has put in some inspired performances. Just take the 1-0 defeat to Shrewsbury where Harley managed to hit the crossbar twice in one half and forced their keeper into a couple of stunning stops.

Just witness his vital goal against Torquay from the Play Off Semi Final 2008 and his classy finish on Saturday (the second on this video) that helped City to a 4-1 win over Macclesfield.

For many moons City fans have wanted someone in midfield with who is just that little bit different. A player to give our midfield a large sprinkling of creativity. Or a huge dollop of flair. Our number 7 isn’t a ‘water-carrier’ or an angry centre midfield ‘general’.

Is it a coincidence that our promotion from the Blue Square Premier coincided with the addition of the genuine creative central midfielder we lacked for so many seasons?

His performances for City are even more impressive given his relative lack of experience having only played three games at Blue Square Premier level before joining City and with one Football League appearance for Bristol City to his name.

Harley seems to command that little bit more time on the ball, has superb vision and seems so comfortable with a football at his feet. He is also the only City player whose name I have considered getting on the back of my shirt (the fact that the club shop lacks the official League Two lettering is another issue…).

So far this campaign Harley has been arguably once of our best performers and when he's on form the whole team looks far more fluid and creative. If he stays injury free and keeps improving he could be the creative flair in our midfield for many years to come.

He is also bringing the best out of one of his midfield partners Matt Gill, who has now scored 4 goals in 4 consecutive games. The trio of Harley, Edwards and Gill compliment each other so well, and long may it continue!

Knowing our luck Ryan is probably being eyed up by some big club as we speak! But if he stays at St James Park I can only see a bright future for City.

*For any scouts reading, please ignore the above, Ryan Harley is incredibly mediocre and NOT someone you want at your Championship/League One club...*

Peter Evans

Photo courtesy of Cheggers

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

Peter Evans — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:50:52 +0100

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.

It’s predictably the forward line where our goal scoring issues have been so far this campaign. After nine games our defence had scored two goals between them. Our midfield had managed five. But our string of 6 strikers could only muster Ben Watson’s smart finish a fortnight ago at home to Accrington.

Ex-Premiership top goal-scorer Marcus Stewart and last season’s 19-goal hero Richard Logan join Adam Stansfield (one of the worst culprits so far unfortunately), Craig McAllister and Steve Basham in the forward line of shame.

On the positive side, some of our strikers have put in some superb performances. Marcus Stewart was easily man of the match against Accrington while Stansfield’s performance at Bradford last week was described by some as his best game for the club.

Paul Tisdale has tried a three man striker force on most occasions this season, with two players dropping deep to play almost attacking midfield positions out on the flanks and one striker (usually Stansfield) as the central striker.

But Stansfield’s main talents are his ability to chase down the flanks, hustle and scare defenders but not his finishing in front of goal. (11 Goals in 40 starts last season for example in contrast to Logan’s 19 in 32). With the other two strikers playing very deep in the 4-3-3 formation it’s not surprising that 5 of the forwards are yet to open their accounts for the season.

I think that Stewart has long been a midfielder (albeit a very competent one for Yeovil last season) and that’s where I see his future at the club. McAllister and Watson both seem like good impact players while Basham has had little chance to impress this season.

Richard Logan is one hitman who hasn’t yet been given a real chance in the position where I believe he is most dangerous this season – as the central striker. His assist for the second goal on Saturday shows what a danger he can be in the box and he could be the out-and-out goal-scorer to compliment some pace on the wings. (Moxey, Stansfield, Watson)

I think a return to a 4-4-2 formation with Moxey returning in midfield with Harley, Gill and Edwards or Stewart with Logan and Stansfield or Watson as the two strikers offers City the greatest potential for attack in the coming weeks.

I have complete faith in Paul Tisdale (Play Off’s in successive seasons have definitely earned him that) to solve our striker riddle and I’m confident that eventually our goal-scoring crisis will ease and the team who scored almost 100 goals last season will start scoring by the hatful.

But if only that was as predictable as that Sean Canham goal….

Peter Evans

Picture used with thanks to Cheggers Pics

Farewell Friend

Peter Evans — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:03:41 +0100

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.

Friend is undoubtedly a significant loss for the team. He had made the left back slot his own and put in plenty of impressive performances at the tailend of last season and the beginning of this one. Despite the blow of losing such one of our best players, the club deserves plenty of respect for haggling such a good deal that could eventually equal our record transfer sale.

They didn’t bite the hand off the first interested party leaving us with a measly sum for a player who had been at the club for 10 years, but kept rejecting bids until they finally accepted one which the management believed was a fair amount for such an impressive prospect.

This deal also highlights the importance of the youth systems at clubs such as Exeter. The side that clinched the long-awaited return to the Football League featured three players who came through our youth system; Dan Seaborne, George Friend and Dean Moxey whose corner set up the only goal of the game. In addition there is also Liam Sercombe, a young midfielder who made his Football League debut last weekend, tipped by many to be quite a talent.

Throughout all our financial worries of the last five or six years the club stuck by its youth system, a decision which is now paying dividends and a choice that many other clubs should take into account before scrapping their youth systems when a little strapped for cash.

We may not have paid for any signings since our last spell in the League, (apart from Paul Jones who arrived for a 'nominal fee') but we have constantly given chances to young players, either those from our own academy or others that were bought in at a young age and developed at the club. As a fan it’s always that extra bit special to see a home-grown player own coming through and performing so well for your club.

The emphasis on youth development has been a talking point at another ‘City’ this week, on the blue side of Manchester. Man City fans (and in fact chairman Gary Cook) have been quick to reiterate the importance of their very impressive academy, which is producing a plethora of quality footballers, in the club’s exciting future.

Their academy has produced Wright Phillips, Richards, Sturridge, Johnson and Ireland amongst others and there are said to be plenty more bright talents waiting to make the breakthrough (including many England youth internationals). The club were today linked with a move for Ronaldo (the more rotund Brazilian one) who hasn’t played for months following another serious injury. Would all supporters really rather see Ronaldo leading the line and picking up a huge wage than the hugely talented Daniel Sturridge being given a chance alongside Robinho et al?

Peter Evans

Picture courtesy of Cheggers

Long Distance Lovers

Peter Evans — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:51:56 +0100

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.

Whether Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or any other glamorous side, there are those certain type of supporters who have unfortunately grown up with Sky Sports, Soccer Saturday and their side on the box more often than the Only Fools and Horses Christmas Specials! You know the sort of fan, whose idea of driving their team on involves subscribing to the TV channel and subsequently helping to fund Frank Lampard’s £135,000 a week pay cheque.

These type of fans love telling everyone and anyone just how successful “we” are and revelling in the glory whilst expecting congratulations for their long distance lover’s success. Is it really any wonder that armchair supporters get “looked down on and mocked” and give the other fans of their club a bad name? When these people expect their fellow football fans recognition for their team’s performance. Their team that plays its home games 250 miles away at a stadium they’ve never seen outside their living room, a stadium filled with thousands of fans experiencing a side of fandom they have never encountered.

Sky make it far too easy for these fans to follow their club from their armchair. Why would they want to get soaking wet and out of pocket to go along to watch their local team when they can watch every game their side plays on Football First?

As I’m sure you do, I know many fans like these, supporters whose match day viewing is not at Southend, Southport or Sunderland but Soccer Saturday and 6-0-6. Lower league clubs throughout Britain are dying (some literally) for the support of these long-distance lovers from Exeter who spend their Saturday afternoons in front of Jeff Stelling. They are missing out on a lot of the unique and awesome experiences of being a football fan. But in many cases these fans don’t admit that their fandom is any different to those of those fans who travel up and down England and Europe week after week. They class themselves as equals to the die-hards who spend their weekends in the service stations of Britain following their club.

Of course any fan that sees their team in action can tell you nothing rivals the match going experience. That watching the match on television is undoubtedly a watered-down version of the real thing. From the away games to the atmosphere, attending the football match itself is meant to be the crucial part of being a fan. A notion being bypassed by thousands of supporters every week.

Whether you’re one of the Norwegian Grecian’s who flew over for Saturday’s Exeter match, or a fan that walked round the corner to the ground, you all had that shared experience. You were feeling the atmosphere, the drama and the joy of Exeter’s return to the league whilst the armchair fans waited for Football First. Aren’t these long distance lovers jealous that we can experience our local team’s highs and lows every week in the flesh?

As an Exeter City fan I could take a liking to a Premiership side to liven up Match Of The Day. I could play as Arsenal on Football Manager long into the night. But at the end of the day I have a football team that give me a sense of belonging, that I’ve created bonds with and who’s history I feel I have played an active role in.

Those electric atmospheres, the demoralising defeats at some Non League outpost, the 6.30am bus to Carlisle. These are the sorts of experiences that define football supporters. I expect all bloggers can post all night about tales of epic journeys, unforgettable last minute celebrations and those wet, windy and miserable nights. Without any of these are you really a supporter at all? Aren’t you just a follower? Or an interested party?

You wouldn’t start a relationship with someone living 250 miles away with the intention of never visiting would you?! You might boast about it to your friends, they might give you regular updates of their lives but it wouldn’t be a real relationship at all would it?

Pete Evans

The Fanzone Challenge - An Exeter 08/09 Perspective

Peter Evans — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:05:13 +0100

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.

Name: Peter Evans

Team: Exeter City - last season’s Blue Square Premier Play Off winners

Current location: Exeter

Website: http://www.peterevans.wordpress.com

Time supporting: 12 years (First match in 1996 aged nine)

Favourite formation: 4-3-3 – our current formation. Rob Edwards keeps the back door well and truly shut in defensive midfield allowing Gill and Harley to push forward to support any three of our six forwards! I would have said 4-4-2 but injuries to our wingers and the sale of Wayne Carlisle have left us with very few widemen to fit this system.

Formation hate to play against: Last season City did find themselves frustrated in home games against teams lower down the league who sat back and flooded the midfield with very little attacking ambition.

Looking forward to this season: A lot more than any other season since I've been following the Grecians. Where do I start? The chance to see Bradford and Darlington instead of Barrow and Droyslden is an obvious attraction. The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy instead of the Setanta Shield. And of course the exposure our club will get, appearing on anything from FIFA 09 to The Championship on a Sunday morning! Finally I’m just looking forward to seeing City play some quality football and hopefully surprising a few people in League Two.

Most fearing this season: Our strikers find the step up to League Two a step too far and fail to score the goals needed to challenge in this division. Oh and the worry that scouts from the upper echelons of English football will become frequent visitors to St James Park and some of our bright talents will be whisked off our hands.

Biggest rival this season: With our neighbours Torquay United still a Non League side thanks to our king of all comebacks at Plainmoor last season and Argyle living it up in the Championship there are no obvious rivals this season (in the League anyway). In fact our nearest away game is the 2 hour drive to Bournemouth! Revenging our 2007 Play Off defeat against Morecambe would be nice though.

Best club pre-season transfer: Of course it has to be Marcus Stewart. The Premierships 2nd top goalscorer in 2000/01 and Yeovil’s player of the season last year arrived on a free transfer in July and becomes undoubtedly City’s highest profile signing since Sean Devine arrived from Wycombe in 2003.

Realistically, would like to see: Some shock wins at some of the bigger clubs and for City to repeat our good home form from last season (only one home defeat in the league). We all know this is one of the best footballing sides in many years at St James Park and I would like to see us show that on this bigger stage. After that who knows really, the league has changed dramatically since 2003 and it will take a while before we really know how our season will pan out.

Expectations: Upper mid-table is my expectation and anything less would be disappointing.

Worst case scenario: Our best players are snapped up in the transfer window and Paul Tisdale follows suit. We look on in horror as Bournemouth, Luton and Rotherham leapfrog us and bring on the mother of all relegation battles.

Final position prediction: My head says a comfortable 13th but my heart says 7th and we will sneak into that last Play Off place.

We Really Did Do It This Time!

Peter Evans — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:48:43 +0100

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.

His statement certainly didn’t need my nod of approval, that’s for sure, a promotion at Wembley would have little competition in the greatest moment stakes. But maybe we didn’t discuss how satisfying a clean sheet for those next 45 minutes would be, because we had all stood in that very same stand 12 months previously.

On that occasion we had watched our success-starved side take an early lead before suddenly suffering a huge bout of stage fright causing a season’s work to unravel in front of our eyes. To experience that once was sickening, but we knew if our team played to their best we would be celebrating and banishing the memories of that heartbreaking defeat.

Two days later I can say that that without a doubt it was my best moment in football.

As a committed Exeter City fan for the majority of my 20 years, the term ‘success-starved’ probably sums up my time following the Grecians. To achieve promotion at Wembley in front of 21,000 delirious fans was understandably perfect.

I expect many fans echo my thoughts; success is a strange concept to followers of Exeter City. There have been some brilliant moments through the years but none that had the end product of a trophy and more importantly promotion.

The squad's celebration was obviously euphoric but it felt almost unreal. I can’t speak for other Exeter fans but was it bizarre to see our players parading any trophy besides the rather less illustrious Devon Bowl.

Champagne corks being popped? The squad surrounded by fireworks and a promotion party? Exeter players parading a trophy in front of legions of ecstatic fans? I almost had to see it to believe it, it was just that surreal.

Was it really our players walking up to the Royal box to collect a trophy? A peculiar but none the less thoroughly enjoyable sight and one I could very easily get very used to seeing.

The day was unforgettable. From the moment we arrived into a pub filled with City fans before kick off to watching the highlights on our return home at 1am. There are clubs throughout Britain that experience these memorable days season after season but for clubs like Exeter, and indeed Portsmouth the previous day, our rare heady days in the spotlight are really worth savouring.

It may have taken 5 years, 122 games and countless twists and turns, but Exeter City were finally back in the Football League and I felt so proud that I had been there for the ride. We had said goodbye to Burton and Barrow and saying hello to Brentford and Bradford.

When writing this article I remembered a particularly positive away trip last season when our carload of City fans coined and then belted out the chorus of 'In the Morning' by Razorlight – “are we really going to do it this time?”

And after five long years of near misses, false dawns, financial worries and Non-League football we really did do it this time and it was unforgettable.

Peter Evans

Throughout the coming days I will be posting more feedback on the season’s events, reflecting on our time in the Blue Square Premier and looking ahead to the challenges that await as a League club at long long last.

Photos courtesy of Cheggers

The Agony and the Exeter City Ecstasy

Peter Evans — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:14:48 +0100

Plainmoor, Torquay, 2:10pm –Monday 5th May 2008: Play Off Semi Final Second Leg

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.

Where was the fighting spirit shown at Burton only nine days previously? - Where we clawed back a two-goal deficit with three minutes to go. Why weren’t we playing our real game, the passing, patient, probing football side that City have slowed evolved into during this campaign? An entire campaign’s hard work seemed like it could peter out into a dire frustrating defeat.

We bossed the first leg. Dominant from front to back apart from, crucially, being able to put the ball in the back of the net. Controversy surrounded the game both on and off the pitch. From a wrongly disallowed Exeter goal to a tunnel bust up at full-time, but Torquay had the upper hand thanks to a 92nd minute goal.

I wrote in the build-up to the second leg about the need to err on the side of caution, to avoid the huge disappointment that could follow. 58 minutes into the second leg it seemed I’d made the right choice, as Kevin Hill pounced to put Torquay 3-1 up on aggregate and the Gulls began to squawk about promotion and Wembley. It took that breakthrough to wake the 5000 Torquay fans inside Plainmoor from their 2-hour siesta. ‘Singing when they were winning’ they might well have been but we were about to be humiliated by Torquay, in their back yard.

Exeter just didn’t look like scoring. We were almost cast adrift, a momentous four goals away from that dream return at Wembley (and three from forcing extra time) with 20 arduous minutes left against a side that had conceded just once against Exeter in the last 240 minutes of football!

Like an embarrassed holidaymaker who’s fallen through a deck chair on Torquay sea front, we looked like we were about to be ridiculed on our own bank holiday saunter to the ‘English Riviera’.

Plainmoor, Torquay, 2:30pm Monday 5th May 2008 - Torquay 1 (3) – Exeter 4 (5)

Delirious, disbelief and delight are some adjectives to describe those frenzied twenty minutes that followed. Or how about breath-taking, exhilarating, extraordinary, amazing, unique, unforgettable, awesome, or just pure ecstasy?

No matter how I try to illustrate it, you just had to be there. To have experienced that unconfined joy and relief which just bubbled over as the miracle comeback was completed. It was one of those moments you just want to bottle up and then relive over and over again.

I know I will never ever forget the feeling when Richard Logan superbly headed in the 3rd goal just a few feet in front of us in the 89th minute and by the time Wayne Carlisle ran clear in injury time to score the fourth I felt on cloud nine.

Nick Hornby described it as the delirium where everything goes blank for a few moments and he’s spot on. Those blanks moments are followed by that need to dance, jump, shout, run, and scream and hug all the City fans that are going absolutely bananas around you.

When celebrating momentous footballing occasions like that your whole world turns on its head for a few seconds. Because the run-of-the-mill celebration usually lasts maybe a few seconds and then it’s a round of applause and smiles all around. But those magical football moments send you over the moon. They seem to last forever and you never feel the need to come back down to earth!

I’m sure every football fan has experienced those select few moments when they felt the same. Isn’t that why we are so loyal in our support? Because we know the ecstasy could be just around the corner?

Although I think the emotional rollercoaster left everyone emotionally and physically shattered. I had a banging headache and a sore throat but felt immensely proud. On our return home it was so enjoyable to re-watch those twenty minutes and the pandemonium that ensued, and the footage of us dancing out of the ground on BBC Spotlight of course….

Football is all about the shared experience and those uninhibited celebrations echoed this. Those post-match songs and celebrations were not only being celebrated with my friends and family but with the players, management and the fans who were all glowing with pride and pure delight at the afternoon’s events.

That brings me on nicely onto our players. In those last twenty minutes they really were all heroes. They showed passion, commitment and pride in wearing the Exeter shirt and showed an indomitable desire to drag us to Wembley. Huge praise must also go to Paul Tisdale who got his tactics spot-on. Can you remember a manager making three second half substitutes in a semi final who all went on to score? - Exactly!

I’ve already described just how much this result meant to me but the players' reactions show it meant just as much to them. We saw Dean Moxey dive into the crowd as the 3rd goal went in. Richard Logan kiss the badge after his stunning winner and even Tisdale ran onto the pitch and celebrated with fans behind the dugout. Whilst Paul Jones showed his immense gratitude to the fans support as he took the time to walk the length of the away end shaking hands with everyone. That’s the sort of players I like to see at my football club, they made us proud on Monday.

When I predicted last week that there could be some unforgettable moments over the two ties, I could never imagine just how right I would be. Scoring three goals in the last ten minutes in a Play Off Semi Final at your local rivals when all hope seemed lost just isn’t the Exeter City way!

So do you think all this hyperbole and hype is a ridiculous reaction to a Non League Play- Off Semi Final victory? I’m sure if you ask anyone lucky enough to witness that unforgettable afternoon in the away end at Plainmoor on Monday they will undoubtedly disagree. It was a day that made me immensely proud to be an Exeter fan and no amount of belittling and put-downs will ever take that away.

Peter Evans - Pictures courtesy of Cheggers and The Express & Echo.

For more feedback from Monday’s game, visit my blog or listen to Kellow’s Bootlaces which includes phone interviews with the victorious players

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

Peter Evans — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:06:03 +0100

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.

With Exeter City 2-1 down at the halfway stage of the Play Off Semi Finals it’s far from over. We out-played and out-thought a Torquay team with just two shots on target and lost only because of a late goalkeeping disaster that leaves us with a mountain to climb at Plainmoor on Monday.

Being outclassed and played off the park by a superb team I can just about cope with but losing to the heavily inferior team leaves a very bad aftertaste. The football we have been playing recently has been a joy to watch, a statement I have very rarely used when watching Exeter City. We kept the ball on the floor and passed it superbly at times. We played neat little one-twos and triangles. We tried clever through balls and overlapping runs. Although when contrasted with the Torquay style of play last night we probably looked more like Brazil 1970 not Exeter 2008!

But just like Arsenal this season, no one will remember the emphatic wins and the beautiful football if it doesn’t end with a trophy.

When I entered the ground last night and saw it bursting at the seams with expectant funs and felt the buzz of the bumper crowd it was easy to ponder just how much potential our club has. How much our fans deserve some success.

We are potentially a bigger side than many League Two sides in terms of attendances and stadium capacity and in my opinion we are playing in a league below our station and as a fan it is immensely frustrating. There were 8,200 fans packed into St James Park last night and there wasn’t room for anymore, some Conference clubs struggle to get 820 fans let alone 8,200!

The despair may well slowly kill me in the second leg if I need to digest a huge disappointment but ideally I’d extinguish the hope that we could turn it round. It should be easy to be pessimistic as an Exeter fan, and after years of disappointment it should be almost second nature. Seasons of disappointment capped off every two years by England following suit and ‘nearly’ bringing home the silverware.

In the coming days I will try to convince myself that we won’t make it a carbon copy of last year’s Semi-Final when we were in a similar position. After our 1-0 first leg defeat at home to Oxford I tried to convince myself that our campaign was over and we would not recover from it, which of course we did in emphatic style.

When you’re mentally prepared for defeat it doesn’t feel quite so sickening if the worst happens and even more enjoyable if you upset the odds. Even with the game about to enter a penalty shoot out at Oxford I tried to tell myself we would fall at the final hurdle in Exeter City trademark fashion in the vain hope it would soften the killer blow.

But the reason why we are hooked on the football drug is that, like that Oxford Second Leg, anything can happen. And whether you are a Fulham supporter eyeing up a great escape or a Cardiff fan warming up for your first FA Cup final in 80 years, there will always be that little slither of hope in the back of your mind that you could really do it this time.

So no matter what mindset I may try to get into, or how many times I tell myself it will be another huge disaster, there’s no escaping the fact that the hope may well kill me but I just can’t help imagining the party if it doesn’t!

Peter Evans

Exeter vs Torquay - A Momentous Encounter?

Peter Evans — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:21:16 +0100

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’.

A quick Google search unearths the must-have compilations of ‘100 Greatest Comic Relief Moments’, ‘The 100 Greatest TV Adverts’ and even the ‘100 greatest moments in food history’.

Football writers and fans share this need to list, tally and pour over their favourite moments. You could purchase the ‘100 Greatest moments of the Kop, the surely agonizing viewing of ‘100 Greatest Bolton Wanderers Premiership Goals’ and of course ‘Gary Lineker's Hot 100’ the VHS from 1996….

Football managers frequently cite defining moments that made their season or maybe began that spiral into mediocrity. In the same way many supporters could pinpoint the moment that they consider to be their greatest or could recall moments where they felt at their lowest ebb as a supporter.

Even on this website some of the best writers in sport, including Brian Granville, have been cataloguing the ‘soul’ of Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds and Arsenal in 50 moments. Moments that defined the respective clubs and shaped their history.

Putting my Exeter City hat on, there have been some key moments of our season, in fact City fans are currently discussing the biggest single moment of our 52 match season (in all competitions) on the message boards. Some may pluck for the 95th minute equaliser at the Kassam back in September or the 4-3 victory over Torquay on Boxing Day with ten men.

But if any supporter ever correlates their ‘50 Exeter City moments’ in years to come; moments that fans could say defined the club or shaped the future prospects the next week could feature heavily.

Because on Thursday and Monday we face a two-legged Play-Off with a trip to Wembley up for grabs for the victor. Two matches where a victory would move us a step closer to a return to league football after five years in the wilderness.

Now, Play Off Semi Finals are undoubtedly huge occasions, live on TV with 180 minutes that will make or break a season. But with the added element of the opposition being our local rivals Torquay and the game moves up another notch on the ‘top moments’ ladder! Local rivals that are a little too close to home.

For those without an encyclopaedic knowledge of Exeter City and Torquay squads, seven players likely to feature in the ties have played for both clubs. Exeter’s Andy Marriott, Richard Logan and Steve Tully have played for the Gulls in recent years whilst Torquay’s Mark Ellis was snapped up by Bolton from Exeter when playing the Under 18’s and has been loaned out.

The other three are a little more contentious. Rice, Todd and Philips all played for Exeter City in last season’s Play-Offs having spent a combined total of eleven years at St James Park. In June they joined then-Exeter assistant manager Paul Buckle, who had spent seven years at Exeter throughout his career. Buckle was unveiled as Torquay United boss and wasted no time in raiding his old club for some familiar faces.

He faced the challenge of rebuilding a Torquay squad that had been relegated from the Football League. After an emphatic start to the campaign, including a purple patch with 18 goals in 15 days in September, the Gulls eventually lost touch with Aldershot who were promoted as Champions. Buckle’s team are a huge danger from set pieces, like to get the ball up to their forwards rapidly and have a squad packed with strikers (six in all) hoping to get on the end of them and do some damage to Exeter’s promotion prospects.

The game will also be only the third meeting between the clubs since February 2003 when defeat at Plainmoor edged Exeter closer to their subsequent relegation. The Boxing Day encounter between the two sides proved to be a 4-3 thriller that swung in Exeter’s favour despite Danny Seaborne’s red card, whilst Torquay sneaked the return fixture 1-0.

Add all these elements into the mix and the recipe is there for two epic ties. I hope any neutrals reading this who fancy watching some rip-roaring, nerve-jangling, unbearable tense football between two even matched sides in front of packed crowds will tune into the Play Off’s on Thursday and Monday on Setanta.

I also hope Exeter City fans will have a bucket load of unforgettable memories to discuss on our way to Wembley!

Peter Evans

Photo cortesy of Cheggers

The Away Day Blues

Peter Evans — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:39:43 +0100

“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?

Since February 2007 I have ‘travelled hopefully’ to watch Exeter City on the road on twelve occasions with just one win. The ‘travelling hopefully’ has been infinitely more fun than arriving. Last Tuesday’s trip to Salisbury for example became distinctly not funny after only nine minutes and it was downhill from there.

I have now watched 990 minutes of football with just seven goals scored, twenty-two conceded and plenty of depressing drives home. Especially impressive is the fact that in these fourteen months Exeter have won 11 away games and I’ve only witnessed one!

Is it a blessing in disguise that I chose to work this Saturday instead of discarding my dissertation and spending my entire Saturday heading across Britain to Nene Park to watch Exeter and Rushden and Diamonds ‘do battle’?

Away from all the doom and gloom of my recent away record I have to admit though I do love a good away day. The atmosphere is usually always far better than home games and the celebrations have an extra bounce to them. Some of the away games I have been to with Exeter have been unforgettable. Everyone loves the football away-day experience whether with friends or family, although experiencing the wonders Aldershot, Stevenage and Crawley have to offer wouldn’t be on many people’s wish list for a Saturday afternoon!

But as the quote at the head of this article describes, the away day is stacked with potential pitfalls, and not just the distinct possibility that the players will just not make the same effort as you!

It is very easy to get carried away as you arrive at another shabby, run-down ground. In Exeter’s case I often find myself frustrated leaving Blue Square Premier grounds where we have outnumbered or almost outnumbered the home fans at grounds often 3 or 4 hours from Exeter. And not only does the away excursion provide you with far too much time to get optimistic pre-game it leaves a lot of opportunities to dissect and stew over another below-par performance and put the world to right.

I will never forget how frustrated and miserable I felt after the Play Off Final at Wembley. After the ecstasy of the Oxford tie and the thrilling run in to get into the Play Off’s the whole Wembley experience left me feeling frustrated and empty. In a similar vein, this season’s 13-hour roundtrip to watch a one-goal defeat in Bury in the FA Cup was pretty high on the disappointment scale.

You may be wondering why I am picking at the scabs of these painful away day experiences? Because with the potentially win-or-bust deciding match at Burton in just over a week’s time the ‘arriving’ needs to become a lot more enjoyable than the ‘travelling otherwise we could well be making unwelcome returns to our regular Conference haunts.

Pete Evans - Injury Time Winner

Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow

Peter Evans — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:32:13 +0000

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’?

Whose name will the fans chant as relegation is confirmed? I wonder which players the fans identify with and trust to stay put and help fire them back up. I doubt the Derby megastore fears selling out of Savage, or Carroll or Robert shirts.

In Exeter City’s case our heroes are few and far between. We have very few players who fans dislike or journeymen the fans find it hard to trust, but the high turnover of players, especially the farewells to quality players, have meant there are slim pickings at times. The Exeter City 2006 club calendar features 25 players; the fact that only four of them are still at the club highlights just how little time quality players seem to stick with the club.

Danny Woodards, Lee Philips, Billy Jones, Jon Challinor, Chris Todd, Jamie Mackie, James Coppinger have all departed in recent seasons. Will Matt Taylor, Danny Seaborne and Dean Moxey be next?

At half time on Monday at Weymouth we all scratched our heads when discussing who our favourite player was. This time last season some fans might have pointed to captain Chris Todd, hard-working striker Lee Philips or the energetic Jamie Mackie. The traits they all had in common were they had been at the club for a while, were potential heroes in the making and seemed to bond with the fans. The only thing they have in common now is they are becoming someone else’s heroes at clubs just down the road.

Exeter City fans seem to be like the archetypal heartbroken lovers. We have been hurt too many times. Just as we start to make that connection with someone, when we find someone as committed as we are to making our relationship flourish they leave us and it’s back to square one.

But in the case of our latest departures, they not only broke off our long-term relationship, they cheated on us with the next-door neighbours and made the short trip to Torquay and Plymouth (in Mackie’s case)! Even our scout, groundsman, goalkeeper and assistant manager couldn’t resist the lure of our exciting love rivals and followed suit. No surprise then, that we struggled to think of any favourite players!

The example often given in today’s football climate is that of the worker moving for a pay rise. The comparison is clearly made (unlike my marriage analogy!) between a lower league footballer making the move up the football pyramid and a standout employee (in this case let’s say a lawyer) being offered a higher level job at a huge firm and making the move for the increased wage.

This got me thinking. Imagine you’re a lawyer and star of their small firm, admired and trusted by the other workers and the customers, where your name is known throughout the region. Would you gamble it all for a pay rise at a huge firm? Where you are ‘just another employee’, with the possibility of never getting the interesting big cases and being restricted to medial tasks? The ‘obvious’ choice to leave and make that step up in your career and earnings might not be as blatant as it seems. Take the case of Jamie Mackie for example.

Mackie was a player who always gave the clichéd ‘110%’ every time he pulled on the red and white shirt, the only thing that was missing was that killer instinct in front of goal. Despite only scoring 8 goals in 69 games for the club before this season he always wore his heart on his sleeve, he was always the player to gee up the crowd and the first to celebrate. The only problem came when he hit a purple patch.

12 goals in 27 games before his departure, including a stunning man of the match performance in the televised Boxing Day derby meant that Mackie had a string of admirers, myself included. Following that game I really believed Mackie had the potential to take the club places and become a real legend but in a move that disappointed many City fans he was keen to not only leave but leave in January and leave to Plymouth (where he has yet to start a match).

I wish Jamie Mackie all the best in his future career but demanding a transfer, especially to your arch rivals probably wasn’t the best move. What Mackie perhaps should have done was to commit himself to the club whenever possible and say it was in the club’s hands whether to sell him at Christmas or in the summer. Then when the large bid came in the club couldn’t refuse, Mackie would have been off and no ties would have been severed.

If Mackie’s move to Argyle doesn’t turn into the best career move he has ever made I would happily have him back, I believed he had the potential to help bring this club back into the Football League again, especially since the money earned from his departure was not spent on a replacement. But to return to the (stretched) marriage metaphor, Mackie would have to swear his undying commitment and maybe, just maybe, we would have the possibility of having a real hero on our hands.

I hope the next generation of potential Exeter City heroes value commitment and loyalty over a big money move. How refreshing it would be to have a player of real quality who genuinely loved the club and would happily spurn big money moves to sign a long-term deal. Or would players really spurn the chance to be that ‘big fish’ in a small pond and become a club hero for a place on the bench at a Championship side?

Peter Evans: Injury Time Winner

Photo courtesy of Cheggers Pics

Lies, Damn Lies and Exeter City

Peter Evans — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:52:39 +0000

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.

According to this study, undertaken by Durham and Plymouth Universities, there is a positive psychological boost for teams playing in red, meaning they win more home matches. This research looked at over 60 seasons of English football results and suggested that the colour red subconsciously boosts player's confidence and unnerves their opponents, a factor seemingly lost on over 60 years of Exeter City players!

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest all had spells of huge success in the 68 seasons the researchers chose to study. Southampton have also had their moments while Barnsley and Bristol City have had successes in various fields this season. Did they not take into account the Exeter City 1990 promotion?!

These researchers go on to describe that in tight matches where the winner is too close to call, they predict that the side in red “could tip the balance between success and failure." Our seven home draws this season suggests the balance never really threatened to tip at St James Park.

Have you ever wondered why Exeter City’s fan base has always had that slight advantage over local rivals Torquay? The answer is (obviously…) a very fickle bread of Devonshire loving football fans that made their decision based entirely on our home shirts. According to this survey supporters “may be subconsciously more attracted to a club wearing red, so the club has developed an increasing resources base”.

Whether this new study is just scientific madness (probably) or an excuse for Exeter City fans to be confident ahead of a crucial run of home games (doubtful) we will never know. But for a breed of fans used to false dawns this news does seem a little cruel.

Like a friend who phones you from their holiday and asks what the weather is like, this survey is almost teasing Exeter City fans, especially given the location of one of the Universities in question. We now seemingly have no excuses for a home defeat in the famous red and white shirts, as we ‘should’ have won. After all 10 of the last 12 Premiership titles have been won by teams in red…

Although, with the club currently trying to decide on a new shirt for next season it could well be worth suggesting removing the white and going for a full red number. Just in case.

PETER EVANS

Blame It On The Tele - Exeter City's TV Virus

Peter Evans — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:49:58 +0000

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-game 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!

Peter Evans

Exeter City - The Envy Of The Premiership?

Peter Evans — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:10:39 +0000

“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.

This statement may seem bizarre. To be honest a great deal of the time even Exeter City fans may well wish they weren't supporters of the Grecians. But I'm about to explain that when you look closer, away from results on the pitch, it's the Exeter City fan experience that these dejected fans are searching for.

Fifth in the Blue Square Premier in our fifth season outside the Football League, we were losing Play Off Finalists at Wembley in May and this season we have been on an impressive run with only one defeat since November. But it's not the performances on the pitch, the trip to the New Wembley or the personnel on board that has these Manchester United and Liverpool fans wishing they were worshipping at Exeter's 'Cathedral of Football' - St James Park.

Forget the straw that broke the camel's back. In the cases of FC United’s and AFC Liverpool it was the issue of ownership that proved to be the straw that broke the commitment, trust and loyalty of the fans. The final straw for these thousands of disillusioned supporters was watching the Glazer family slither into Old Trafford or Hicks and Gillett play kiss chase with DIC over their ownership of Liverpool. The fans wanted a club where they could have their say.

These ‘real football club’s main objective is to be one with their fans, the very same fans that many of the big clubs were taking for granted. The AFC Liverpool site describes how it purports to create a club "owned by Liverpool fans and run by Liverpool fans" one which will restore "the link between club and supporters." FC United's manifesto talks of a similar need to have a member-owned democracy. In this way AFC Liverpool's organisers could do themselves a lot of favours by having a closer look at Exeter City. After years of mismanagement and financial disasters the club was days from going out of business until a series of events led to Exeter City Supporters’ Trust taking control in 2003. Our club for the fans owned by us, the fans.

Exeter City's Supporters’ Trust is one of fifteen in England with 2,271 members including myself and has raised over £700,000 for the club since its creation. A democratic, non-profit organisation with a constitution very similar to those created at the breakaway clubs AFC Wimbledon and FC United. Each member has equal ownership of the club with the ability to vote on any major decisions made. Currently the issues that Supporters’ Trust members can cast their vote on vary from selecting next season's home shirt to whether the club's long term future is at St James Park. In terms of ownership Exeter City Football Club provides the stability and the union between the supporters and the club that many supporters fear they will see disappear over the sunset as the new owners arrive in town.

It's not just the ownership issue that could cause jealous glances towards the capital of Devon. There is also the subject of atmosphere, an issue at Manchester United long before Roy Keane's prawn sandwich rant. The thorny discussion surrounding the deterioration of atmosphere at Premiership games has been credited to the demolition of the terraces in the top flight and the pricing of 'real fans' out the game. Well at Exeter City an adult ticket to stand, sing and shiver on the terraces for twenty-three home games would set you back £235. Problem well and truly solved.

Fans don't want to be told where and with whom they can stand. We want to be given the chance to mix with their fellow supporters, and celebrate with them. Anthony King, a writer on the issue of terracing, described how the terraces allow the possibility for "opportunities for ecstatic celebration of fans” whilst writer Richard Voase described "how standing in a crowd is exciting, amusing.... a spontaneous and creative experience." All these experiences these fans lost with the Taylor Report can be renewed on the terraces and it has been well documented just how much the FC United fans appreciated this change in scenery.

AFC Liverpool will continue their plans to get their supporter-run, grassroots club ready to compete in the North West Counties League Division Two for next season. Their aim to attract fans that can have the enjoyment of an afternoon's football for their family at a club that is affordable and fun. At a club where they are a real part of the community. Where they can stand and sing and can partake in the "ecstatic celebrations of fans" and watch their club rise through the leagues without fearing the next chairman who’s only got money on his mind. As an Exeter City fan I am proud that my club already offers all these elements that these disenchanted fans are searching for, “a real football club, a real football team.”

So would you rather be a lower league team having fun and enjoying your football at a club you are part of? Or another customer at a successful club albeit one owned by owners with their best interests at heart?

Peter Evans