March 01
8th August 2015
Yeovil (h)
Will Hoskins with a debut winner
Report By Oliver Roderick
Exeter City: Olejnik, Noble (Oyeleke 87'), McAllister, Ribeiro, Harley, Oakley (c), Davies, Nicholls (Hoskins 73'), Nichols (Morrison 84'), Wheeler, Brown.
Subs: Hamon, Butterfield, Woodman, Tillson.
Goals: Nichols pen 31', Wheeler 41', Hoskins 85'
Yeovil Town: Weale, Smith, Dolan, Arthurworrey, Laird, Jeffers, Dickson (c) (Bird 86'), Fogden (Cornick 45'), Lacey (Sokolik 74'), Beck, Roberts.
Subs: Krysiak, Burrows, Allen.
Goals: Cornick 46', Dolan pen 63'
Report
WILL HOSKINS struck a late winner for Exeter City with five minutes to go of a pulsating opening day Sky Bet League 2 encounter with Yeovil Town.
A Tom Nichols penalty and a David Wheeler goal had given Exeter a commanding lead at the break, but that was cancelled out quickly in the second half, sub Harry Cornick scoring within a minute of coming on before Matt Dolan converted a penalty of his own.
But sub Hoskins had the final say, beating Yeovil keeper Chris Weale in the closing stages.
After both the seventh and ninth minutes saw two brilliantly-observed minutes' applause from all four corners of the ground, Tom Nichols had the game's first real chance, but miscued after David Wheeler's pull-back.
Nichols was given an even better chance to hand City the advantage, however, and that was a chance that he took just after the half-hour. After Connor Roberts was penalised for pulling back Alex Nicholls in the penatly area, a spot-kick was awarded. Once David Noble had been booked for querying why Roberts himself had not seen a yellow card, Nichols stepped up and sent Yeovil goalkeeper the wrong way.
Then, David Wheeler put his body on the line to double City's lead. He got in behind the Yeovil backline before prodding past Chris Weale, and getting flattened in the process. Wheeler was okay after some attention, and the half-time score was 2-0.
HALF-TIME: EXETER CITY 2-0 YEOVIL TOWN
Half-time substitution Harry Cornick made an immediate impact for the Glovers, pulling one back on the turn within a minute of the restart. City had their chances to re-establish their two-goal cushion, with David Wheeler heading wide from Matt Oakley's cross, but were dealt a big blow when Yeovil were awarded a penalty of their own when the dangerous Cornick went down (lightly, in the view of the Big Bank) under the challenge of Christian Ribeiro. Matt Dolan sent Bobby Olejnik the wrong way from the spot, much like Tom Nichols had done to Chris Weale in the first half.
The scores level at 2-2, nobody picked up David Wheeler's run to Ryan Harley's corner, but the City winger missed the target. Wheeler smacked the post with just over ten minutes to go, while Will Hoskins came on for his Exeter City debut in place of Alex Nicholls. Manny Oyeleke did the same, before Clinton Morrison, whose one-month deal with the Grecians was exclusively revealed in match day programme The Grecian, also came off the bench, clad with his new number 13.
But the highlight of the game came with five minutes to go. A ball forward by Matt Oakley bounced just before it reached Will Hoskins, and the new Grecian reached it just before Weale. Despite a despairing lunge from the Yeovil defence, the ball hit the back of the net, and City were winners.
For Exeter City in 2015/16, it's one game played, one game won.
FULL-TIME: EXETER CITY 3-2 YEOVIL TOWN
Attendance: 5,659 (1,247 away)
Man of the Match: Tom Nichols
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