Exeter City 1 AFC Bournemouth 3.

League 2
Tuesday 10 March 2009

The Moxey Report

On a clear and crisp night at the Park, City serve up something of a shocker and are deservedly walloped 3-1 by a hard working AFC Bournemouth side in front of 4,946 eager fans. Buoyed by a superb four points from successive aways at Shrewsbury Town and Luton Town the previous week, City raced out of the blocks and enjoyed the upper hand in the opening exchanges. Dean Maxey in particular was on fire straight from the off and as early as the second minute launched a booming 40-yard dipping shot from just inside the touchline after spotting the keeper off his line. Convinced his goal was safe, the keeper made no effort to get back, but all the same was grateful to see it bounce to safety from the top of the angle of post and bar after it dropped suddenly at the end. Two minutes later good work from Matt Gill and Steve Basham saw an effort cleared back to Moxey 30-yards out, who unleashed a venomous daisy cutter towards the far post that the keeper scrambled away for a corner. In the tenth minute the irrepressible Morey was again involved cutting a ball back from the left to Marcus Stewart just inside the box. Unfortunately the end result didn't quite match the move as Stewart scuffed his shot somewhat and it ran harmlessly to the keeper. But soon enough City's industry was rewarded when in the 13th minute a dawdling Brett Pitman was robbed of the ball 30-yards out by Moxey who squared to Adam Stansfield bursting through the middle. He still had plenty to do though, and showed terrific strength and determination holding off a defender before crashing a fearsome drive low through the keeper from the edge of the box to make it a thoroughly deserved 1-0 scoreline to City. This seemed to wake Bournemouth up, and all of a sudden they realised they had a battle on their hands, and so it was that they gradually began to get the upper hand and fought back to finish the half much the better side. In the closing seconds though, both sides had the chance for a goal. Firstly a bit of scramble in the City box ended with Rob Edwards clearing to safety from inside the six yard box, then secondly Basham had a terrific opportunity to put City 2-0 up when he latched onto a scurrying Maxey whipped in cross at the far post. Unfortunately he couldn't provide the finish and the keeper got down well to force the ball away at the base of the post as City finally looked wrestle control of the game back from a dominant Bournemouth. Sadly it was not to be and the end of the first half was merely a brief flurry of possession from City as Bournemouth came out for the start of the second period in determined mood. It looked as though Paul Jones had pulled off a terrific save tipping a scorching 25-yard Exocet onto the bar and away, but the ref deemed it a goal kick. Bournemouth deservedly equalised in the 55th minute when a horrendous mix up between Troy Archibald Henville and Jones - neither appeared to know what the other was going to do so neither did anything- allowed Danny Hollands to nip in unmolested to guide the ball home into an empty net from six-yards out to make it 1-1. Basham was replaced with Craig McAllister in the 57th minute, but still City's crazy five minutes continued as in the 60th minute Bournemouth took the lead when Pitman was allowed to waltz through the entire City defence before planting a good looking side foot low into Jones' left hand comer from 15 yards out to make it 2-1 to the visitors. With Neil Saunders visibly flagging he was almost immediately replaced by Liam Sercombe and almost immediately City looked more composed and assured down the right hand side. In the 65th minute Archibald-Henville blasted a partially cleared Maxey corner high onto the Bank from the edge of the box, then two minutes later Jones did well to plunge to the base of his near post to smuggle away a close range low driveJust to complete the see-saw passage of play, a minute later McAllister's six-yard header was headed off the line by a well placed defender. But all the time it was Bournemouth in the ascendancy, and it was always they who looked liked increasing their lead rather than the Grecians equalisingso in a final act of desperation Danny Seabome replaced Stansfield with Matt Taylor being pushed up front to partner McAllister in attack. This backfired spectacularly two minutes later when Seaborne had to leave the pitch to have a head wound treated thus leaving two defenders ill prepared for a smart Bournemouth break down the left that ended with the ball crossed inch perfect for Pitman to steam in at the far post and gleefully smash past the stranded Jones to make it 3-1 to the visitors with barely stoppage time left. The final act of the half somewhat said it all, when a purposeful run by Sercombe down the right ended with Alex Russell wastefully lifting the ball into the home fans behind the goal from about 25-yards out. So in the end City got what they deserved: nothing. Bournemouth were sharper, quicker to close downmore determined and seemed to want the result so much more than we did, Perhaps the recent run of games has taken it's toll, particularly the two tricky away games last week, but this would be a lame excuse considering the rotation system employed by Paul Tisdale should ensure players maintain their fitness for longer. So just a bad day at the office then? Maybe, but if we are to be serious about promotion this season - either automatically or via the play-offs-then we'll have to do a whole lot better than we did. Far too many players were off their game, with far too many passes either going astray or going to team mates well covered by opposing defenders. Up until we scored we looked as though we'd win comfortably, but after that we were second best for the rest of the game. But rather fortuitously other results seem to have went our way. We blew the chance to go third, but we didn't lose any ground on our fellow promotion hopefuls.

BBC match summary and information