Exeter 2 Accrington Stanley 1.

Saturday 6 September 

The Moxey Report 

So on a day of sunshine and showers, it's all smiles up at the Park as City record their first home win of the season 2-1 with a fine performance against a big strong Accrington Stanley side in front of an impressive 3930 fans. Ben Watson starting up front was manager Tisdale's only change from the disappointing Shrewsbury game in midweek as he kept faith with the rest and his preferred 4-3-3 formation. As it was, it was City who had the better of the opening exchanges, but as was to be expected it was Accrington who had the first real chance: a free kick on the edge of the area was driven in low and deflected by an attacker right in front of Paul Jones, but he reacted well and adjusted sharply to collect.

In the eighth minute, after some good City pressure, Richard Logan, Ryan Harley and Marcus Stewart combined well to feed the ball to the lurking Watson near the penalty spot. As he shaped to shoot, a defender lunged through from behind to send Watson to the turf and inexplicably the ref waved away penalty appeals despite the protestations of all but a handful in the groundYou wonder if he'd have been as keen to wave play on had the 'foul' been committed in the centre circle, but that's another argument for another time.

Meanwhile, City did play on, and a couple of minutes later had another chance when Watson collected a ball played in from the left. He turned sharply, but dragged his low drive narrowly wide. But in the 11th minute City fell behind. Jamie Clarke onside in acres of space down the leftConfidently he strode in on goal and fired a daisy cutter across Jones and into the far corner of the net to give Accy a 1-0 lead. Here we go again, we thought, but thankfully the players didn't and almost immediately were back on the attack. This time a free kick was floated across to Matt Taylor who knocked it back to Logie. Unfortunately the close attentions of an Accy defender were sufficient to force Logie into guiding his header wastefully over. City heads stayed up though, and for the next ten to fifteen minutes enjoyed the sort of measured and controlled possession that we'd seen so much of last season. It was great to watch as both defenders and midfielders stroked the ball around with ease and confidence while the Accrington front line chased shadows. It looked to be wasted midway through the half when Rob Edwards smashed a 25 yard free kick high onto the Bank, and the groans turned to astonished disbelief as Harley crashed an unbelievable volley at the keeper from the edge of the box that he could only parry into the path of the rushing Watson, where he proceeded to stab the ball straight at the prone keeper with the whole of the goal gaping from two yards out. It didn't deter City from continuing to press, and with the belief that a goal would surely come soon we saw the best move of the game on the half hour when Matt Gill played the most delicious ball inside the full back for Steve Tully to chase round the outside. Tully drilled the perfect low cross into the box that demanded to be finished in style and with Watson driving in it looked for all the world that an equaliser was there, except Watson stood on the ball instead of sweeping home and the keeper fell on the ball before anyone had the chance to react.

With the fourth official showing the board for two minutes stoppage time City had a second strong penalty appeal turned downAgain Harley launched a stinging drive from distance that the keeper batted down, but with attackers keen to follow up it looked as though a defender punched the ball down before hacking away to safety. But City weren't to be denied, and in the 47th minute got their just rewards. A long Deano throw wasn't dealt with by the lumbering Accy defence and the ball found it's way to Gill stationed 12-yards out who gleefully crashed the ball into the roof of the net and send three sides of the ground into raptures with the first home league goal of the season and literally the last kick of the half. Thankfully the second half was soon underway, and equally thankfully City still had their momentum: a mere two minutes elapsed before City had a wonderful chance to take the lead. Watson broke down the left touchline and floated the ball over to Stewart deep in the corner of the box, he in turn nodded across goal to Logan six yards out, but he got his header all wrong and instead of planting righteously into the net somehow managed to send it back towards Stewart where it was easily intercepted and cleared. An even bigger howler came in the 60th minute when a defender horribly screwed a miskicked clearance straight to the unmarked Logan eight yards out where the the best Logie could do was air shoot horribly as the ball bobbled away to safety. Logan was immediately substituted for Liam Sercombe, and five minutes later City deservedly took the lead: Harley picked up a lofted ball forward and played the most exquisitely weighted through ball for Watson to scamper on to. Showing the same cool collectedness that he'd shown in slotting home the game defining penalty at Torquay in the play off semi final last season, he took a touch to steady himself before drilling low to the keeper's left into the bottom corner to make it 2-1 to City and only the second time this season that City had enjoyed a lead anywhere. But the lads weren't finished and tails were up and confidence oozing. Harley and Watson, combined again in the 80th minute to set up Stewart but his rasping drive was spectacularly tipped around the far post for a corner. Five minutes later, to tumultuous applause, Watson made way for Steve Basham and with his first touch a cheeky dink into the box set Harley away but a defender forced him wide and thus his shot lacked the power to trouble the keeper. With two minutes to go Harley departed to the same applause afforded Watson, and Manny Panther entered the fray as Tis looked to shore things up and protect what his team had worked so hard to earn. In three minutes of stoppage time Accrington couldn't fashion anything of note, and thus the ref had seen enough and blew for City's maiden home win back in the league. And well deserved it was too, with all of the players working hard and working together. The latter part of the first half was particularly pleasing with the way the players knocked the ball about enjoying huge lumps of controlled possession, and it was also pleasing to see that they didn't panic when they went behind and continued to try to play their football to get back into the game.

Ant Moxey


Attendance 3,930 with 89 away fans
Referee : Graham Scott.

Tuesday 9th September 08
Exeter City Reserves 7
Forest Green Reserves 1

The sight of a City striker finding the net with such ease will have brought cheer to those Exeter fans who may have started to worry about the first team forwards recent goal-shy tendencies. But there were plenty of other positives for the watching Paul Tisdale and his coaching staff to take home, despite the relatively non-competitive nature of the encounter. Alongside hat-trick man Craig McAllister, Steve Basham looked sharp and opened the scoring in the seventh minute, converting Liam Sercombe's excellent cross at the second attempt from six yards . Full-backs Scott Bennett and Jack Obersteller looked impressive and raided forward at will, while triallists Freddie Murray and Ronnie Bull largely looked the part while partnering each other in central defence. Basham's early effort sent out the warning signals for the Gloucestershire side, but they were not heeded and McAllister doubled his side's advantage on 14 minutes by starting and finishing a sublime move through midfield. Six minutes later McAllister really got into the groove by heading home Obersteller's free kick at the back post. And on 24 minutes Rovers' heads well and truly dropped when another wonderful move down the night flank involving Basham and Bennett ended when Sercombe's ball across the face of goal was tapped in by Bertie Cozic for 4-0. Cozic had scored the best goal of the night, yet still the Grecians continued to show their visitors no mercy. McAllister's hat trick goal- a flicked header from Murray's pass-made it 5-0 on 30 minutes. City finally showed signs of stepping off the gas after the interval and Rovers got a consolation when the ball was flicked into the box and the lively Isaac Shaze beat Bennett and scored though Nick Jordan's legs on 59 minutes. However, the hosts were not to be denied the final say and Obersteller made it 6-1 in the 69th minutewhen his cross looped over the visiting keeper and into the net, much to the glovesman's embarrassment. Within moments Basham scored his secondCity's seventh and the final goal of the evening tapping home while unmarked in the centre of the area after Toby Osman had done well to outpace his marker and cross from the left. Forest Green's night of misery was complete when Sota Mensah was sent off in the dying moments for diving in late on Jordan to collect his second booking

Exeter: Jordan, Bennett (Osman70), Obersteller, Cozic Murray, Bull, Sercombe (Tasker, 70)Panther, Basham, McAllister (Dawson70)Shephard