Jake Taylor had two spells with Exeter City. The first was when he arrived on loan as a young player from Reading in 2011; the second was a five-year stay up to 2021 once he had finally left Reading after playing for a succession of clubs on loan. Jake played a remarkable number of games in his five full-seasons with the Grecians and was captain in his final three years at the club.

Jake played academy football for Reading from the age of eight and became a trainee/scholar in 2008 ahead of making his first-team debut in the League Cup in August 2010 and in the League in May 2011. As a young player at Reading, he played for Wales at under-17 and under-19 level and, after playing a handful of games on loan at Aldershot, was placed on loan with Exeter City in September 2011.

Making his City debut at Sheffield Wednesday in a League One fixture on 24 September 2011, Jake played thirty league games and scored three goals against Leyton Orient, Yeovil and Rochdale as City were ultimately relegated from the third tier.

Heading back to Reading Jake moved on to loan spells at Cheltenham and Crawley before, between October 2013 and March 2015, making the bulk of his Reading appearances when he played over thirty games alongside representing Wales at full international level against Cyprus in March 2014. Thereafter it was back to loans with Leyton Orient and later Motherwell.

Finally leaving Reading at the age of twenty-four (having played 36 first-team games in all competitions), Jake joined Exeter City on a permanent basis in January 2016 and over the remainder of the season was to start seven games and come on nine times as substitute. But 2016/17 was to be a different story as Jake established himself at St James' Park and appeared in 51 league, cup and play-off games whilst the Grecians reached the play-off final in May 2017. A remarkably similar season followed in 2017/18 with Jake featuring in 54 games when City’s campaign ended with another play-off defeat.

Continuing to display week-in-week-out versatility, consistency and durability, Jake clocked-up another 49 matches in 2018/19 and 43 in the COVID-interupted 2019/20 season. With the latter season leading to another play-off final, Jake could now claim to have appeared in all nine of City’s play-off matches in 2017, 2018 and 2020 before continuing with the club into the 2020/21 season when (usually behind closed doors) he added another fifty appearances in all competitions.

By now Jake had reached 263 appearances in his second spell at City during which time he had chipped in 29 goals together with captaining the side from 2018 onwards. Working out as an average of fifty games a season over five full campaigns, Jake made his last appearance for the Grecians at home to Barrow on 8 May 2021 prior to opting to leave St James' Park and take up a contract offer with Stevenage.

Arriving at his new club, Jake played 42 league games in 2021/22 ahead of being part of the squad that won promotion the following season when he started 15 league games (with another 28 as substitute). Dropping out of the Football League, and now in his early thirties, Jake agreed terms with National League Eastleigh in May 2023 where he had 34 league outings during 2023/24 season as he reached his 500th appearance in senior football whilst remaining on the books of the Hampshire club into 2024/25.