SKY BET LEAGUE TWO
Exeter City ... 3 Yeovil Town ... 2
Saturday 8th August 2015
@ St. James Park, Exeter
Kick Off 15:00
ORIGIN AND BRIEF HISTORY
Exeter City were formed from two local teams, Exeter United and St Sidwell's United who played
each other in 1904 and at the end of the game decided to merge and go under the name of Exeter City. They played their home games at St. James Park which was Exeter United's ground and City still play there today although it was just an open field back in those days. To even the merge conditions a little City kept the St. Sidwell colours of green and white that is until 1910 when they changed to the familiar red and white stripes that we know today.
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| Thatchers big bank stand from outside ground |
City played their matches in the East Devon league switching to the Plymouth and district league after just one season where they remained for three seasons. In 1908 they became members of the Southern league replacing none other than Tottenham Hotspur, they spent twelve years in this division when they where invited by the football league to become founder members of the Third Division.
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| Site that greets you as you emerge from railway station |
Exeter were to spend 83 years fluctuating between Divisions three and four never reaching the heights of the football leagues second tear and then in 2003 and in their centenary year disaster struck as City finished 23rd in Division four and were relegated to the Conference being the first team to be relegated in the bottom two after the league restructured their rules.
The following season the club was taken over by the Exeter City Supporters Trust after two of their directors were convicted of fraudulent trading and leaving the club millions of pounds in debt. The supporters trust managed to keep the club afloat until January 2005 when City were drawn away to Manchester United in the third round of the FA cup and astonishingly they managed a 0-0 draw bringing the Premiership giants back to St. James Park but lost the replay 2-0. The revenue made from the two games was a great contributor to City clearing their debts by the end of the year.
Exeter managed to return to the football league beating Cambridge United 1-0 in the 2008 play-off final at Wembley but are still bouncing up and down between the two lower divisions. They are now in league Two finishing 10th last season.
RUN UP TO THE MATCH
Exeter City are in a much healthier position at the start of this season than they were last. City
took out a £100,000 loan from the Professional Footballers Association in June last year which placed them under a transfer embargo until the loan was paid back. The sale of Matt Grimes to Swansea for a club record of £1.75 million in January has left manager Paul Tisdale with a much happier prospect for the start of 2015/16 season. Tisdale has bought in Peterborough goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, Brentford midfielder Manny Oleyeke and Cheltenham's defender Troy Brown without spending any of the clubs windfall from the sale of Grimes and promises that their will be more signings to come. Leaving St. James's Park are long serving defenders Pat Baldwin and Scott Bennett as well as strikers Graham Cummins and Clinton Morrison. Midfielder Liam Sercombe also says goodbye to his boyhood club after signing a two year deal with league two rivals Oxford United.
After gaining promotion to the Sky Bet championship in the 2012/13 season Yeovil have been in
free fall finishing bottom of the league in the following two seasons. Manager Paul Sturrock wielded the sword and releases 12 players from the squad at the end of last season including captain Joe Edwards with another 4 being told they were surplus to requirements. This has made Sturrock a busy man in closed season trying to rebuild his team, he's so far brought in Matt Dolan from Bradford, Jack Compton from Hartlepool, Marc Laird from Tranmere, Ben Tozer from Northampton, Jordan Gibbons from QPR, Shaun Jeffers from Newport, Omar Sowumni from Ipswich, Ryan Bird from Cambridge, Wes Fogden from Portsmouth, Alex Lacey from Luton, Mark Beck from Carlisle and winger Iffy Allen from Barnet. In fact only four players remain from the squad of the last game of last season, Nathan Smith, Stephen Arthurworry and the two goalkeepers Chris Wheale and Artur Krysiak.
THE MATCH
The whole stadium applauded at two set times for the same player who was idolised at both clubs. On seven minutes everyone clapped in appreciation for Adam Stansfield who tragically died from testicular cancer 5 years ago to the day on Monday 10th August. He wore the number seven shirt for Yeovil between 2001-04 scoring 14 times in 55 games. The applause rang out again after nine minutes the number of the shirt he wore for his final 4 years at Exeter city 2006-10 scoring 37 goals in 142 appearances.
On the pitch the mood was a little subdued, maybe the occasion got to the players or maybe it was the weather for it had to be at least 26 degrees pitch side. A voice behind me in the main stand rang out "It's got 0-0 written all over this game and you feared that his prediction would come true for the first half hour as both teams prodded away without much conviction but then on 31 minutes he was proved wrong when Alex Nichols was put through on goal in the Yeovil penalty area only to be held back by Yeovil new signing Connor Roberts. Nichols despatched the spot kick himself sending Chris Weale in the Yeovil goal the wrong way.
This seamed to inject some life into Exeter who went for the Yeovil jugular who looked stunned and unable to respond and four minutes before half time their troubles were doubled when David Wheeler beautifully controlled a well weighted ball from David Noble and slipped it passed the on coming Yeovil keeper who clattered the Exeter goal scorer leaving him riving in agony and needing treatment.
2-0 at half time and most of the fans hadn't even made it back to their seats after the half time
interval when Yeovil reduced the deficit with a well crafted goal from the kick off which saw Marc Laird turn sharply in the Exeter penalty area to curl the ball past the Grecian keeper. Seven minutes later and they were level when substitute winger Harry Cornick was brought down in the Exeter penalty area by Christian Ribeiro, the referee awarded the penalty and Matt Dolan (no relation) stepped up to even up the tie.
It looked as though a draw was inevitable especially when Wheeler's thunderous shot from twenty yards cannoned of Weale's right hand post and away from danger but with six minutes of normal time remaining substitute Will Hoskins chased a ball knocked over the Yeovil defence by Matt Oakley and coming face to face with the Yeovil keeper somehow managed to knock the ball over Chris Weale's head and into the back of the net stealing all three points for the Grecians. Verdict: a fair result.
THE ST. JAMES PARK EXPERIENCE
What a glorious day to pick for a trip to the seaside. Arriving early at Exeter St. David's I decided to catch the train to Exmouth and take in some sunshine and sea air as well as trying a regular portion of cod, battered chips and mushy peas from the local chippy Krispies and believe me they were well worth trying.
I took a walk along the Esplanade or Exmouth's version of a promenade with some scenic views and the sun blazing away in an almost cloud free sky with the temperature around the 22 degree mark, I was seriously thinking about sitting outside a pub on the sea front and ditching the idea of the short train journey to St. James Park. But like a true martyr to the cause I soon come round to my senses and headed for the game.
The ground has a capacity of nearly 9,000 of which 3,800 are seated. On one side is the Grandstand which is the oldest part of the ground, it is all seated and fully covered but it only covers half of the pitch just straddling the half way line which leaves the other side toward the Thatchers Big Bank end unused by spectators.
The other side of the ground is the WTS stand (Main Stand) which was built in 2001 and is the newest and smartest part of the stadium, it is also all seated and fully covered and is where I watched the game.
At the end to the right of the WTS stand as you look at the pitch is the fore-mentioned Thatchers
Big bank terrace which is fully covered with a capacity of around 4,000 which makes it the largest terrace still in existence in the English football league. At the opposite end is the St James Road terrace which is small and open and allocated to away support as is the part of the Grandstand that leads onto the terrace.
My ticket cost me £25 which I think is dear for a league two game, I'm off to Oldham next week who are a league higher than Exeter and the price of the ticket is £3 cheaper.
The ground is lovely although a little cramped in places especially outside where fans congregate outside the bar with the club shop just across the road and the turnstiles in close proximity. It was a good turn out for this match just over five and a half thousand, well it was the opening game of the season and both clubs were determined to give a fitting tribute for Adam.
Although there was a lot of drinking going on the fans intermingled and there was not even a glimmer of any trouble. Both sets of fans were well behaved and very friendly, a credit to their clubs
MATCH DETAILS.
The following season the club was taken over by the Exeter City Supporters Trust after two of their directors were convicted of fraudulent trading and leaving the club millions of pounds in debt. The supporters trust managed to keep the club afloat until January 2005 when City were drawn away to Manchester United in the third round of the FA cup and astonishingly they managed a 0-0 draw bringing the Premiership giants back to St. James Park but lost the replay 2-0. The revenue made from the two games was a great contributor to City clearing their debts by the end of the year.
Exeter managed to return to the football league beating Cambridge United 1-0 in the 2008 play-off final at Wembley but are still bouncing up and down between the two lower divisions. They are now in league Two finishing 10th last season.
RUN UP TO THE MATCH
Exeter City are in a much healthier position at the start of this season than they were last. City
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| Exeter warming up before kick off |
After gaining promotion to the Sky Bet championship in the 2012/13 season Yeovil have been in
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| Yeovil preparing for start of the game |
THE MATCH
The whole stadium applauded at two set times for the same player who was idolised at both clubs. On seven minutes everyone clapped in appreciation for Adam Stansfield who tragically died from testicular cancer 5 years ago to the day on Monday 10th August. He wore the number seven shirt for Yeovil between 2001-04 scoring 14 times in 55 games. The applause rang out again after nine minutes the number of the shirt he wore for his final 4 years at Exeter city 2006-10 scoring 37 goals in 142 appearances.
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| Grecian the Lion waving to the croud |
This seamed to inject some life into Exeter who went for the Yeovil jugular who looked stunned and unable to respond and four minutes before half time their troubles were doubled when David Wheeler beautifully controlled a well weighted ball from David Noble and slipped it passed the on coming Yeovil keeper who clattered the Exeter goal scorer leaving him riving in agony and needing treatment.
2-0 at half time and most of the fans hadn't even made it back to their seats after the half time
 |
| St. James Park end filling up with away support |
It looked as though a draw was inevitable especially when Wheeler's thunderous shot from twenty yards cannoned of Weale's right hand post and away from danger but with six minutes of normal time remaining substitute Will Hoskins chased a ball knocked over the Yeovil defence by Matt Oakley and coming face to face with the Yeovil keeper somehow managed to knock the ball over Chris Weale's head and into the back of the net stealing all three points for the Grecians. Verdict: a fair result.
THE ST. JAMES PARK EXPERIENCE
What a glorious day to pick for a trip to the seaside. Arriving early at Exeter St. David's I decided to catch the train to Exmouth and take in some sunshine and sea air as well as trying a regular portion of cod, battered chips and mushy peas from the local chippy Krispies and believe me they were well worth trying.
 |
| Scenic view from esplanade |
The ground has a capacity of nearly 9,000 of which 3,800 are seated. On one side is the Grandstand which is the oldest part of the ground, it is all seated and fully covered but it only covers half of the pitch just straddling the half way line which leaves the other side toward the Thatchers Big Bank end unused by spectators.
The other side of the ground is the WTS stand (Main Stand) which was built in 2001 and is the newest and smartest part of the stadium, it is also all seated and fully covered and is where I watched the game.
At the end to the right of the WTS stand as you look at the pitch is the fore-mentioned Thatchers
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| Cramped conditions outside club shop |
My ticket cost me £25 which I think is dear for a league two game, I'm off to Oldham next week who are a league higher than Exeter and the price of the ticket is £3 cheaper.
The ground is lovely although a little cramped in places especially outside where fans congregate outside the bar with the club shop just across the road and the turnstiles in close proximity. It was a good turn out for this match just over five and a half thousand, well it was the opening game of the season and both clubs were determined to give a fitting tribute for Adam.
Although there was a lot of drinking going on the fans intermingled and there was not even a glimmer of any trouble. Both sets of fans were well behaved and very friendly, a credit to their clubs
MATCH DETAILS.
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