Exeter City 4 Macclesfield Town 0.
Tuesday 10 February 2009.

The Moxey Report 
On a crisp and fresh evening at the Park it was definitely third time lucky as City romp to their biggest win of the season, a handsome 4-0 win over Macclesfield Town, witnessed by a paltry 2,839 spectators. It didn't take long for City to get in their stride. As early as the third minute Matt Gill curled a free kick from the edge of the D into the keeper's midriff, then in the tenth minute Adam Stansfield thought it time to test his luck glancing a header towards the keeper from Marcus Stewart's knock back in. But it was merely the writing on the wall for what was to come as on the quarter hour City took a deserved lead. Dean Moxey broke down the left and crossed low towards the near post. As the defender dithered, Stansfield nipped in sharpish to stab the ball home from a couple of yards out to make it 1-0 to City Ten minutes later it was nearly 2-0 when Neil Saunders inswinging comer was inadvertently flicked on at the near post only to be cleared from under the angle of post and bar at the far post by a desperate team mate. On the half hour a superb cross field ball found Richard Logan who knocked the ball down for the rushing Saunders inside. As he shaped to shoot, a defender challenged taking the sting out of his 15 yard effort that the keeper held comfortably. With ten minutes to go a Saunders free kick caused all sorts of problems in the Macc defence resulting in the ball being scrambled off the line and then Manny Panther's follow up drive being blocked at source on the edge of the box. Two minutes later Saunders pulled off the most outrageous turn to set Logan away down the right where he drilled a low cross to Deano who's shot was blocked at point blank range. A second goal did eventually come though, and it was right on the stroke of half timeA lightning break from Saunders down the right saw the ball fed to Stewart in the middleHe in turn played in Logan on the left who hit a wicked drive hard into the left hand comer of the net from 20 yards via a slight deflection to give City a 2-0 half time lead. The second half couldn't come soon enough, and in the 55th minute City almost had a third, again via a Macc defender. Gill strode through the middle of the Park majestically, and from 35-yards let fly with a laser guided Exocet that ricocheted off a defender's head and towards the roof of the net. It was only a superb save from the Macc keeper that prevented a stunning goal. In the 60th minute a comer from Deano pinged about in the box before Saunders played the ball back in from the comer of the box where a suspiciously offside Stansfield glanced a header wide when in acres of space. City then reverted to a 4-4-2 when Steve ully replaced Troy Archibald Henville, although Deano was still available on the left to play the wing back role so they could still play 3-5-2 when necessaryFive minutes later Logan made way for Craig McAllister. Immediately after the substitution Deano was sent scampering down the left where he cut the ball back low and hard. Unfortunately Stewart had to fetch it from slightly behind him so his shot lacked power and the keeper collected comfortably. But all that play meant a third goal was almost inevitable. McAllister showed great strength and determination to win the ball and surge forward before feeding Gill on the edge of the box. His fierce daisycutter cannoned back off the base of the far post, but Saunders was quickest to react and skipped in to slot home into an empty net from close range to make it a satisfying 3-0. Seconds later three became four when Stewart's innocuous looking shot from the edge of the area appeared to have been gathered comfortably by the keeper, but somehow he then spilled it where McAllister smashed home from a tight angle to equal City's four goal haul at Moss Rose at the end of September. With Deano being replaced by Ryan Harley ten minutes later, the final action of a rip roaring performance saw City almost grab a fifth when a towering Matt Taylor header from six yards out was somehow hacked off the line when a goal looked the only outcome. But four's enough and in the end it was City's biggest win of the season so farAndprobably, one of their best too. The passing was just sublime from defence to attack with little triangles all over the Park. The defence was content to knock it about amongst themselves whilst the midfielders found space, then attacks were built from there. No one panicked and no one hoofed, it was just pass pass pass from start to finish, and poor Macclesfield didn't have the first idea what to do about it. Results and performances have stuttered a little of late, yet today everything worked and everything looked right, even down to manager Paul Tisdale's controversial squad rotation policy. There's a lot of games coming upso you can see the sense in resting players, and it also makes sense in that everyone's happy because everyone is getting a gameYou might say you keep your best players playing, but City have a squad where everyone has a role and everyone is valuedYou could see that this evening. And so now we take this superb result and performance into today's game against Aldershot TownHopefully a few more will turn up to witness hopefully an equally mesmeric game, and after creeping back into the play-offs, we could well be back in an automatic promotion spot should we prevail against Aldershot. Today was one of those days that reminds you just why you support this club we call Exeter City. Every now and then a performance comes along where everything clicks and we really do look like the best team in the world. Can you ever imagine not being a City fan? Not after games like this!

BBC Match report and details. 

Exeter City turned on the style to thrash Macclesfield and move into the play-off places in League Two. After Emile Sinclair dragged wide for the visitors Adam Stansfield put Exeter ahead, when he flicked a smart volley past Jon Brain from a Dean Moxey cross. Marcus Stewart teed up Richard Logan and his 25-yard shot was deflected in, before Neil Saunders finished smartly after Matt Gill's shot hit the upright. Craig McAllister tapped in to wrap it up after Brain saved Stewart's shot.

Exeter: Jones, Saunders, Edwards, Archibald-Henville (Tully 62), Taylor, Moxey (Harley 76), Stansfield, Gill, Panther, Logan (McAllister 67), Stewart.

Subs Not Used: Marriott, Basham.

Goals: Stansfield 16, Logan 44, Saunders 73, McAllister 75.

Macclesfield: Brain, Reid, Hessey, Brisley, Morgan, Jennings (Deen 46), Tolley (Thomas 64), Brown, Bell, Sinclair, Evans.
Subs Not Used: Elliott, Yeo, Flynn.

Booked: Bell.

Referee Roger East

Attendance 2839 with 67 away fans