Shrewsbury 1 Exeter 4


BY BRIAN BINNERSLEY

EXETER City clinched their best win of the season with a skillful and spirited display at Gay Meadow City's on loan strikers 19-year-old Shayne Bradley, from Southampton, and 20 year-old Gary Alexander, from West Ham, may be inexperienced but they were far too slick for the Shrewsbury defenders. Bradley and Alexander scored three between them with the other goal coming from skipper Jon Richardson. The role of goal maker fell to the speedy Kofi Nyamah who galloped down the left flank almost at will in a one way second half to create panic among the Shrewsbury defenders, panic which allowed City to take advantage of some well engineered chances. Indeed, with a little more  steadiness in front of goal, Exeter could well have reached eight or nine goals. The reason they failed to do so such a target was because veteran goalkeeper Paul Edwards turned in a five star performance. But for him, Alexander and Bradley could well have scored hat tricks. Exeter had the tonic of a goal in just three minutes. A cross from the left was headed down by Chris Curran and there was Bradley to force it home from a couple of yards as Shrewsbury defender Kevin Seabury vainly tried to hook it clear. After this Shrewsbury took the game to Exeter and Scot Steve Kerri- gan, who had attracted interest from City earlier on in the season, levelled with an overhead kick which deceived Stuart Naylor. Efforts by home strikers Lee Steele and Kerrigan were scrambled away by an Exeter defence in which the consistantly reliable Jon Gittens and skipper Richardson were outstanding. Things looked set to go Exeter's way after the break when Edwards, under pressure and with defender Mark Winstanley dithering in front of him, brought down Bradley as the City front man was about to shoot. Penalty it was, but the Shrewsbury keeper pushed Barry McConnell's spot kick round the post as Exeter missed a penalty in successive matches but it proved no set back
From then on Exeter took control, hassled Shrewsbury constantly and it was left to agile Edwards to save the home side from a rout. Richardson, with time to join his attack, put City in front again in the 68th minute by heading home after Alexander's first effort had been saved. Nine minutes on and it was Alexander's turn as he forced the ball in from a Nyamah cross. And it was Alexander who made it 4-1 with his fifth goal in his 10- game loan spell from yet another Nyamah cross. Exeter made three substitutions towards the end with striker Steve Flack, returning after a long spell out through injury and only denied a goal by Ed- wards' agility. This was Exeter's first win at Shrewsbury for 22 years and exposed glaring weaknesses in a home side that had lost only once in their previ- ous six games. Exeter looked very much back in the sort of form that took them to the top of the Third Di- vision table at the start of the current campaign.

Exeter City 
Naylor.. Richardson Curran. Gittens Robinson  Holloway. McConnell Nyamah Worrell. Alexander.Bradley Substitutes: Smith (for Worrall, 54)  Speakman (for Alexander, 87), Flack (for Bradley 75) Not used: Matthews, Gale

Shrewsbury:
Edwards, Seabury, Wilding, Winstanley, Hanmer, Brown, Brown (Rigby 72), Berkley (Rogers 72), Cullen, Jobling (Hughes 80), Steele, Kerrigan

Scorers:
Exeter Bradley 3, Richardson 68, Alexander 77, 80;
Shrewsbury - Kerrigan, 18.

Bookings:
Exeter - Nyamah

Referee: M.D.Messias (York)

Attendance: 2,052

Star Man:
Kofi Nyamah - Speedy and clever