DYNAMIC DUO INSPIRE CITY


Exeter City 3
Pratt (2, 1 pen), O'Shea Aldershot 0

Report by Trina Lake 

EXETER CITY earned full marks, three points, and a pat on the back from manager Jim Iley on Saturday for an all-out effort win over Aldershot and two men in particular went to the top of the class for their superb con- tributions to a morale- boosting success.

Goal ace Ray Pratt took his personal tally for the season to 15 with a calmly-taken first half penalty and a goal of First Division quality in the 67th minute.

But the player who just shaded him for man of the match honours was goal- keeper Jeff Wood. He emerged from the doldrums to produce possibly his best display of the season includ- ing a dramatic 54th minute penalty save.

Wood's confidence was at rock bottom after a string of poor performances but on Saturday he silenced all his critics with one of the most positive displays of goal- keeping from a City player in a long while.

He was dominant in his own penalty area and showed razor-sharp reflexes when Aldershot threatened to claw their way back into the game in the second half. "Jeff was tremendous

today. He came and got everything, and that helped our defenders. It was the best I've seen him play since early in the season," said Iley.

City responded to Iley's criticism about lack of pro- fessionalism and commit- ment in the best way and he was the first to give credit where it was due.

"We hustled and bustled Aldershot out of the game. There is no doubt that we won on effort. The players have worked very hard to try to put things right and full marks to them for battling away so well today," he said.

For the first half hour on Saturday, however, honest endeavour never looked like being enough to settle a damp squib of a game.

Aldershot, bidding to extend their unbeaten run to six matches, made most of the early running and Andy McCulloch caused a slight panic in City's defence with a header that Jim McNichol did well to clear. McNichol was perhaps the biggest unsung hero of the afternoon for City. He played with a badly strained thigh but it was a credit to his professional pride that nobody really noticed him struggle at all. He gave 100 per cent effort throughout.

City's first opening came after a good interchange between Pratt and Trevor Morgan that ended with City's leading scorer firing a shot just over the bar from the edge of the penalty area in the ninth minute. Glen Burvill sent a stinging shot inches wide in the 12th minute and Wood saved well at Martin Foyle's feet two minutes later as Aldershot kept the pressure on. Foyle was again the danger man midway through the half when it needed a fine saving tackle from McNichol to halt one jinking run and a goal-line clearance from Keith Viney to prevent him forcing the ball home from a corner. City's response was pretty pitiful with youngsters Martin Ling and Symon Burgher, making a quiet league debut, hardly troubl- ing the goalkeeper with tame shots. But in the 35th minute all that changed. Burvill's poor back pass let Morgan in, and as he took the ball past goal- keeper Graham Cox he was pulled down and Swindon referee Keith Cooper had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Pratt took instant respon- sibility for the kick and planted a firm drive wide to Cox's right to make it 1-0. City kept their composure for the remaining 10 minutes of the first half and came out after the break in determined mood. Nick Marker could have made it 2-0 with a header from Viney's 46th minute free kick but put the ball straight at Cox.

O'Shea was booked for a high challenge on Barry Blankley and Burvill had his name taken for bringing Steve Harrower down from behind. With the game still finely balanced, Wood stamped his authority on the situation with dramatic effect. In the 52nd minute he did his confidence a power of good by taking a difficult curling cross from Ian McDonald cleanly under pressure. That eamed him a warm round of applause from a keen-to-encourage crowd but the response to his next piece of skill was far more ecstatic. Phil Coleman was trying to clear the ball from Mark McNeil in the 54th minute and the winger appeared to fall over his leg but Mr Cooper saw it as a foul and made his second penalty award of the game. Justice was done, however, when Wood flung himself to his left to block McDonald's powerful shot and McNichol followed up to belt the ball clear. It was McDonald's first failure in 14 attempts and Coleman was booked for arguing with the referee that he should not have had the chance in the first place.

Sensibly, City tried to take the sting out of the situation by calming the game down. They succeeded for a while but Aldershot went hard in search of an equaliser and McNichol again had to clear when Foyle threatened in the 65th minute. But Aldershot were stop- ped in their tracks again by Pratt's second goal - a strike that even European Football of the Year Michel Platini couldn't have bet- tered at the end of a well constructed move. Viney's cross from the left was nodded down by Morgan to Pratt on the edge of the Aldershot penalty area and the Welsh wizard showed dazling skill to flick the ball from his right foot past a defender and on to his left for a sweetly hit volley past Cox. "That goal was worth the price of admission on its own. It was tremendous," said Iley, who reckons to have a love/hate relationship with Pratt.

"He's like all strikers. When he's scoring goals its great. When he's not he might as well be sittiing on the bench next to me. But he has done tremendously well this season and all credit to him," said the City boss.

In an end-to-end climax to the match Wood again came to City's rescue as Aldershot refused to lie down.

In the 73rd minute he made a brilliant tip-over save from Foyle's header to a Burvill cross and made an equally stunning stop from Georgie Mazzon six minutes later, diving spectacularly to his right to turn the former Tottenham midfield man's shot past the post.

At the other end Ling came within a whisker of his first goal in senior football when he weaved his way past three defenders to shoot against the foot of the post.

City rounded off their most comprehensive win since the opening game of the season in stoppage time with another well-worked goal. 

Viney's long throw from the left was headed on at the near post by Morgan, Pratt got a touch that almost gave him his third hat-trick of the season, but only succeeded in squeezing the ball along the goal-line and in came O'Shea to crash a shot home from a couple of yards out. That was just reward for a much-improved afternoon's work by O'Shea, who has come under fire from his manager in recent weeks for an apparent lack of commitment. It may not have been the most constructive game he has ever played on Satur- day, but he could nto be faulted for getting stuck in. But like the rest of the team, one performance doesn't make a season; one victory cannot wipe out the memory of some of the dreadful results this season. It has however, lifted City to sixth from bottom of the Fourth Division with a great opportunity to keep the ball rolling in two successive home games to come against Southend on Friday and Newport the following Wednesday in the Freight Rover Trophy second leg.

City: Wood, Coleman, Viney O'Shea, Marker, McNichol. Ling, Burgher, Morgan, Pratt, Harrower. Sub: Smith.

Aldershot: Cox, Blankley, Spencer, McCullough, Smith, Burvill, Shrubb, McNeil, Foyle Mazzon, McDonald. Sub: Fiel- der.

Attendance: 2,134.