Taylor, Jake

Birth Date

1st December 1991

Birthplace

Ascot, Berkshire

Occupation

Midfielder

Biographical Text

Jake Taylor had two spells with Exeter City. The first was when he arrived on loan as a young player from Reading; the second was a five-year stay after he finally left Reading after playing for a succession of clubs on loan. Jake played a remarkable number of games in his five full-seasons and was captain in his final three years at the club.

Jake played academy football for Reading from the age of eight becoming a trainee/scholar in 2008. He made his first-team debut in the League Cup in August 2010 and his first league appearance in May 2011. As a young player at Reading Jake played for Wales at under-17 and under-19 level. Then, having played a handful of games at Aldershot, Jake was sent on his second loan placement when he first signed for Exeter City in September 2011 almost immediately making his debut at Sheffield Wednesday in a League One fixture. In what proved to be a near season-long arrangement Jake played thirty league games as City were relegated and scored three goals against Leyton Orient, Yeovil and Rochdale. As arranged Jake returned to Reading at the end of the season and moved on to loan spells at Cheltenham and Crawley. Next, between October 2013 and March 2015, Jake made the bulk of his Reading appearances playing over thirty games and representing Wales against Cyprus in March 2014. Thereafter it was back to loans firstly with Leyton Orient and then Motherwell.

Jake finally left Reading in January 2016 at the age of twenty-four having played 36 first-team games in all competitions. His choice was to return to Exeter City where he had been on one of his earlier loans. Over the remainder of the season he was to start seven games and come on nine times as substitute. But 2016/17 was to be a different story as Jake appeared in 51 league, cup and play-off games as the Grecians reached the play-off final in May 2017. It was a remarkably similar story the following season as Jake appeared in 54 games as City’s season ended with another play-off defeat.

Jake continued with his week-in, week-out versatility, consistency and durability as he clocked up another 49 matches in 2018/19 and 43 in the COVID-interupted 2019/20 season. With the latter season leading to another play-off final Jake could now claim to have appeared in all nine of City’s play-off matches in 2017, 2018 and 2020. Nor was Jake finished as he appeared fifty times, usually behind closed doors, in 2020/21 by which time he had reached 263 appearances in his second spell at City. This worked out at an average of fifty games a season over five full campaigns. Jake had also chipped in 29 goals as well as captaining the side from 2018 onwards. 

At this stage, in May 2021, Jake decided to leave the club to sign for Stevenage where he played 42 league games in 2021/22 before being part of the squad that won promotion the following season. However, after starting 15 league games (with another 28 as substitute) during the 2022/23 campaign, Jake agreed terms with National League Eastleigh in May 2023.   

PPAUK_SPO_Exeter_City_TS_121220_056.jpg



Appearances

Exeter City

League 265 (including 9 play-off); Cups 28 (293)

Goals

League 30; Cups 2 (32)

Related Resources

Files

Comments

Allowed tags: <p>, <a>, <em>, <strong>, <ul>, <ol>, <li>