Walsall 2 Exeter City 1.
Saturday 9 October 2010.

On the road with Kirstie Bowden 

Next up was Walsall. It was with great trepidation that we welcomed Marge back. A holiday had seen her miss 2 away wins and a draw. She returned to watch us lose at Bournemouth. She then missed us win at Hereford we feared the worst. We arrived early enough to take in the sights of the Banks's Stadium there weren't any so we went to McDonalds instead. Inside the ground Marge strove to find a spot safe' from flying balls inexplicably when she chose a particularly high risk area to the right of the goal shooting practice saw much screaming and cowering. Jake Thomson soon cottoned onto this and with an evil smile he started aiming not for the goal but the wall directly in front of us. It was hilarious and terrifying in equal measure! The Pirates of the Caribbean theme tune was played before Walsall's arrival onto the pitchan apt song as by the end of the first half, City were well and truly at sea. Much like last season a bright start gave way to a catastrophic implosion - in ten mad minutes Troy got sent-off and City conceded twice.

An early second half goal from Harley, with the assist coming from the referee, gave us hope. Despite persistent Walsall time-wasting, and a growing injury list (Nardiello joined first half substitute Cureton on the physios increasingly cramped table)City kept pushing forward.

Late on O'Flynn came agonisingly close with a chance that flew over the bar and straight at me, Marge and my Mum we owe a great deal to the man beside us who saved us by punching the ball to safety! The final whistle put paid to another wretched afternoon at Walsall back on the bus Marge was met with a somewhat frosty reception.

BBC Match Summary and information 

Walsall recorded their first win in nine games by beating 10-man Exeter.

The home side took the lead when Reuben Reid fired a shot in from close range and Matt Richards nodded in a Martin Devaney cross to double the advantage. The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Troy Archibald-Henville was sent off for a second yellow card. Ryan Harley got one back for Exeter when he drilled in a low shot, and John O'Flynn almost snatched a late point when his volley clipped the bar.

Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale told BBC Radio Devon:

"I'm really upset with 10 minutes of our performance. "I think today was a great example of playing extremely well, and completely throwing the game away with 10 minutes of poor focus and poor decision. "We lost focus, we felt sorry for ourselves, we conceded a second goal, then we have a man sent off through pure naivety, and the next thing we have is the biggest uphill battle we've had for a long time."

Referee Graham Salisbury

Attendance 3,776 with 822 City fans.

12th October 2020 

Exeter City Reserves
Totesport Combination 
(from the Carlisle home programme) 

Exeter City Reserves were beaten 2-0 by a strong Plymouth Argyle second string at Home Park on Tuesday.

City started brightly with plenty of possession without really creating any clear-cut chances in the final third but Artur Krysiak was the first keeper to be called into action, saving well from Joe Mason after an error from Rob Edwards.

Edwards is expected to feature this afternoon and he will have been pleased to notched up another 68 minutes at Home Park. Argyle striker Mason meanwhile, who has featured infrequently for the Greens this season, opened the scoring on 20 minutes when he met an Argyle corner with a volley which went through Krysiak and in at the near post. After the set-back of that soft goal City nearly conceded shortly after Yannick Bolasie headed over the bar from another corner. But he got his goal shortly after Mason's pullback from the by-line to double the home side's lead.

Exeter began to pick up at the start of the second half Jake Thomson setting up Chris Shephard whose shot was going in but it hit young striker Tom Nicholls. Shortly after Argyle were denied a third goal by the brilliance of Krysiak who made up his poor kick straight to Mason with a wonderful one-handed stop to deny the youngster. Thomson was one of a number of City players looking to impress after making his full debut last week and he went on a great run cutting in from the right hand side but his left-footed shot from 20 yards was off target. Thomson then came even closer when his 25 yard effort rattled the post before the game fizzled out. But that spark will be well and truly back when City return to Home Park in November in the JPT.

The Reserves are in action next on October 27th, at Swansea,

City Lined-Up:
Krysiak, Bennett, Edwards (Furzer 68) Heath, Thomson, Doble, Cozic, Shephard, Frear (Keats 68) Nicholls, Bassett (Western 79)