21st JANUARY 1989 

WREXHAM 3 EXETER CITY 0

CITY SUNK BY QUICK GOALS

Wrexham scored twice in as many minutes to sink Exeter City after a goalless first half. An own goal by City skipper Shaun Taylor 10 minutes from time sealed it for Wrexham, leaving Exeter manager Terry Cooper again complaining about his side's abysmal away form.

City's star man in the first half was goalkeeper Dave Walter who made a string of fine saves to keep Wrexham out But it also has to be said that city had their chances in that first period - did not take them and Top scorer Darren Rowbotham will be kicking himself for twice missing chances in the space of a minute Steve Tupling, on loan from Cardiff City, created the first after 14 nunutes but Rowbotham was denied by Mike Salmon's superb save. City continued to pressure Wrexham and Rowbotham again found himself in space, but was hopelessly off target with a shot. Then it was the turn of Walter to justify Cooper's decision to take him from non-league football. He made a flying save from Wrexham skipper Joey Jones and then was good enough to foil Wrexham's top scorer Kevin Russell, in a one-for-one situation. Salmon also did superbly well to stop a Tommy Langley drive just before halftime. Then it all went wrong for City within minutes of the res- tart as Wrexham scored twice. John Bowden beat Walter with an angled drive and then set up Russell for a second a minute later. So from 0-0, City suddenly found themselves 2-0 down but surprisingly then enjoyed their best spell.

Scott Hiley worked hard in midfield and up front City's assistant manager Steve Ne- vill, was always a willing worker. Rowbotham completely mis-kicked when given a chance by Neville before City replaced Langley with Carl Harris and for a while Wrex- ham were on the rack although Salmon was never seriously tested. Cooper substituted Neville with triallist Keith Smith 10 minutes from time, but then came Wrexham's third. Salmon's long clearance was mis-kicked by Chris Banks and that let in Russell whose low cross was deflected past Walter by Taylor.

Wrexham
Salmon, Salathiel , Wright,  Hunter, William Jones, Bowden, Flynn, Buxton, Runell, G. Cooper Subs Carter, Thackeary

Exeter
Walter, Banks, Tupling, Rogers, Taylor, B. Cooper, Rowbotham, Hiley, Vinnicombe. Neville Langley, Subs Harris, Smith

Attendance 2514

A Fan's perspective 

This certainly isn't my favourite fixture of the season, for two reasons. Not only because I am Welsh, so have to endure my fellow supporters taunting my own country (and they enjoy watching me wince in pain), but City's record in the principality is terrible. Exeter have won just one of their last fifteen matches in Wales, and they never really looked like bettering that record during this game.

His best two saves were a dive at Kevin Russell's feet as he broke through and a superb fingertip save to deny the mega-experienced Joey Jones. City had their chances as well, a distinctly off form Rowbotham missing two within the space of a minute. The first three minutes of the second-half were a nightmare for City fans, a drive by John Bowden and a sweet finish by Russell effectively killing the game stone dead. I really shouldn't especially say such things, considering our recovery at Hartlepool in November, but I had a gut feeling we wouldn't recover. We dominated the rest of the game without testing the Wrexham much. However, he keeper too leaped like a Mick Salmon to save a Neville effort in the closing stages. The third goal was farcical to say the least! Chris Banks miskicked, the ball broke free to the Exeter bogey man Kevin Russell and his low cross was deflected into his own net by Shaun Taylor. That was Shaun's second embarrassing moment of the season, remember he scored a cracking own goal at Darlington in September. He's got a long way to go to beat the present day own goal specialist, Shrewsbury's David Moyes, who has scored in the wrong net three times in the last six games! It was sad to hear Wrexham's players saying on local television that they "find it easier to play against defence minded sides like Exeter". Was this really the never say die, throw caution to the wind side that we know and love? I don't think the five man defence system works well for us, we seem to play much better in open attacking games than in tighter defence matches. The biggest blunder of though came from the day Richard Shepherd of Radio Wales who commented there were "a couple of dozen" City fans at the match. There were in fact 150 there (ask any of the other 149 if you don't believe me ?!) and once again the vocal support was impressive and far superior to that of the home supporters. I just can't imagine what it will be like if we get our away form together!