Exeter City 0 Barnsley 1

7th October 2023

City beaten at SJP.

Exeter City suffered an agonising defeat at the hands of a late-winner as they lost 1-0 at home to Barnsley. Despite creating some dangerous chances and hitting the post twice, City fell victim to a late-winner from John McAtee. Manager Gary Caldwell named two changes from City’s midweek loss on the road at Charlton Athletic. Pierce Sweeney and Jack Aitchison came into the starting XI,replacing Jack Fitzwater and Tom Carroll, looking to take 3 points from Barnsley and end The Tykes’ 4-game away win streak. City captain Will Aimson remains in the starting XI after his red card, which he received on Tuesday night, was overturned following an appeal. 

Five minutes in, Mitchell earned a free kick 30-yards out. Gambling on a loose ball, Mitchell engaged in a game of chicken with Jamie McCart who clattered Mitchell to the floor and in doing so picked up a yellow card. Reece Cole stood over the free-kick and cleverly played the ball on the near-side of the one-man Barnsley wall; the keeper was beaten but it was just wide! Down the other end, Alex Hartridge put in a last-ditch tackle, that could have been a penalty if it weren’t so perfectly timed. Shortly after, a mis-hit cross from Herbie Kane threatened to loop over Vil Sinisalo who was forced to bring out the acrobatics to tip the ball over for an unfruitful Barnsley corner.  The game continued to be an open affair, end-to-end action with Mitchell’s pace on the left-wing and Vincent Harper’s technical dribbling on the right asking questions of Barnsley’s fullbacks. Just past the half hour mark, James Scott dropped deep, creating space for Mitchell to run in behind, found by a lobbed ball from Hartridge: Mitchell brought the ball down and tussling with a Barnsley defender, rounded the keeper, though he found himself with too acute an angle to thread the ball between the near post and the tumbling Barnsley goalkeeper who recovered and saved the ball with his flailing legs. Just before the half-time whistle, City were under the cosh, with Barnsley enjoying a period of sustained possession in City’s third of the pitch. That was until Harper got on the ball, absorbing all the pressure by carrying the ball from within his own box to the half-way line, eventually being brought down by Callum Styles who picked up a yellow for the foul. The half-time whistle blew and the teams went in level. 

The second-half began with some beautiful football from City, intricate passes around the centre circle between the midfielders. If Caldwell is the conductor, his orchestra was playing particularly tight thanks to his instructions off-stage at the interval. This opening piece crescendoed with Harper running in behind the Barnsley defence and winning City a corner. Whilst Cole’s low-driven corner did not end in a goal, it was a promising start for the Grecians.

City continued to knock on Barnsley’s door, 15 minutes into the second-half. Harper continued to toy with the Barnsley defence, whipping a high-cross into the box, meeting the head of Mitchell who climbed to be the highest in the area, heading wide. Then, hot off winning City’s September Goal of the Month, Mitchell surely thought he had secured October’s too. Dancing through the Barnsley defence, Mitchell shot with the outside of his foot from outside the box. The Big Bank rose to its feet as the trivela smashed against the back-post, Harper was there at the rebound but could not quite find his feet to capitalise. Following a period of sustained pressure, City were quickly reminded that the game was in the balance and they could not fall asleep at the back. Whilst all of Barnsley’s dangerous advances were dealt with, they did leave Grecians with hearts in their mouths, as they came close on a couple occasions through Sam Cosgrove and Devante Cole. In the 89th minute, Barnsley burst City’s bubble. There was a feeling within SJP that City might be caught out, and they were. Owen Dodgson took a corner for Barnsley and McAtee towered over the City defenders at the back-post to head home. A dagger in the hearts of Grecian supporters. City came back strongly but to no avail. Caldwell made two positive changes, bringing on Sonny Cox and Admiral Muskwe, as the Grecians piled on the pressure. A scramble in the Barnsley box saw Mitchell hit the box for the second time in the game but it just wasn’t meant to be.

The records will show a fourth-straight league defeat for City but the supporters will know they deserved something from this game. A combination of misfortune and failure to be clinical meant City ended the day 11th in the League One table. 

Exeter City: Sinisalo, Harper (Wildschut), Sweeney, Aimson (C), Hartridge (Cox), Jules, Kite (Muskwe), Cole (Taylor), Aitchison (Trevitt), Scott, Mitchell.

Unused subs: Woods, Richards.

Barnsley: Roberts, Williams (C), De Gevigney, Cadden (Dodgson), Kane, Russell (Phillips) Styles, O'Keeffe (Cotter, McCart, Watters (McAtee), Cole (Cosgrove).

Unused subs: Killip, Sheperd.

Referee: Scott Jackson 

Attendance: 6542 (600 away)

U18 Report:
Sutton United 3 Exeter City 2

Derek Baker reports as City's U18s exit the Youth Alliance Cup.

Exeter City’s Under-18s bowed out of the Youth Alliance Cup with a 3-2 defeat away at Sutton United U18s on Saturday.

The U’s acclimatised to the conditions quickly, and three first-half goals gave them the ascendancy in the tie.

However, the Grecians displayed some better character and quality after the break, and defender, Scott Simmons, scored from a free-kick to half the deficit.

Simmons bagged another with just over 10 minutes of regular time remaining, however, City were unable to find another, meaning the Devonians were knocked out of this season’s competition.

Due to the long distance and early kick-off time, Exeter’s youth side travelled up to Sutton the day before where preparations seemed to go well ahead of the crucial cup clash.

Ollie Saunders was once again named in goal for the visitors, while Max Edgecombe returned to the starting XI to captain the side.

On a rather narrow pitch, the game began quite tight, with neither team really giving one another an inch of space.

While the Grecians looked to keep the ball on the floor, with which they found difficulties when they tried advancing up the pitch, United played with a direct nature, and that allowed them to move through the thirds quite effectively.

The home side broke the deadlock when they played the ball in behind the City defence for their wide man. He was able to get within shooting distance of the Devon club’s goal, before slotting the ball in at the near post to open the scoring.

Exeter’s players were a little slow with their pressing game, therefore allowing their opponents the chance to gain the upper hand. A number of fouls were committed as a result, which then enabled the U’s to cause problems when they lofted the ball from any resulting set-piece. 

Sutton doubled their advantage from a corner when one player rose unchallenged, and he was able to divert the ball into the back of the net for 2-0.

Just before the interval, the hosts added a third from another dead-ball situation on the edge of the penalty area. The direct free-kick was parried away by Saunders, but another United forward converted the rebound to compound the away team’s first-half misery.

Some honest conversations and tactical tweaks at half-time gave the Grecians some extra heart after the restart, and with both full-backs playing a little narrower, that allowed the wingers more space to exploit the opposition.

With more quality in their possession, City were arguably getting on top in the game, and with them able to move the ball into dangerous areas, some crosses that flashed in front of the hosts’ goal could have been converted had more players committed themselves forward.

But the Devon outfit did pull a goal back when they made the most of one of their own set-pieces. After winning a free-kick wide on the left, Edgecombe whipped a dangerous delivery into the danger area. Sam Joce won his aerial duel to glance a header against the post, before Simmons reacted the quickest to turn the ball in from close range to reduce the deficit.

Exeter continued to come forward and create more of the openings, and as the game entered the final period, they made it 3-2 to set up a thrilling finale.

The visitors worked a short corner to Edgecombe, before the skipper curled another delicious ball into the 18-yard box. Coming onto the ball was Simmons, and his first-time finish was too good for the U’s goalkeeper making it a five-goal game.

With more men thrown forward in the hope that they could force extra-time, the Grecians piled on the pressure, but, they were unable to create one more golden chance, and ultimately, they ran out of time as the referee blew for the end of the game shortly after.

Exeter City’s Academy Operations & Performance Manager, Arran Pugh: “We’ve ended up losing game, but both the staff and the players thought we could have won it. Ultimately, this is all about developing players to the highest level they can possibly get to, but this is also a cup competition and one step away from the semi-finals of the regional round, so the players wanted to get through to have another competitive game to experience.

“I think the preparation was really good. The attitude from the boys was spot on, so credit to them. We ended up playing at an alternative venue, and the tight pitch was unexpected. We always aim to dominate possession, and create opportunities by playing through the lines, but it wasn’t a great surface. It was the same for both teams though, and ultimately, we needed to be better at playing our own way.

“In professional football, you have to be adaptable, and be able to solve problems while nullifying the opposition. We have a good group of players here, but they needed more confidence, quality, and consistency in passing and receiving the ball in those tight situations as well as with their pressing intensity. From our perspective, you have to be good enough to play at the levels we want to play at, and, in the first half, we didn’t do that, and didn’t show quality in the technical basics.

“It was another learning opportunity, and despite losing, it certainly wasn’t all doom and gloom and all negative. But we have got to look at what is required in order to show what we are all about. In the second half we showed a bit more quality in possession, working some nice overlaps and underlaps. We were the better team in the second half, and had more possession and territory, and we showed more quality when we wanted to.

“This coming weekend we are looking to arrange a friendly match as it is a while until our next league fixture. When you look at it, the boys are in with us six out of the seven days, and, typically, only one of those is a match day, so five of them are training, therefore making it a bigger part of the players’ journeys. We want them working on all parts of their development, ready for their next challenge, and every day is a chance for them to get better as players and as a people.”

Exeter City Under-18s: Ollie Saunders, Tom Dean, Liam Oakes, Sam Joce, Scott Simmons, Max Edgecombe, Giulio Marroni, Alfie Cunningham, George Birch, Kieran Wilson, Santino Ohanaka

Subs: Harry Crees, Liam Cartwright