WHAT WE LEARNED...
Holding on to the family silver
Top scorer Marc McNulty wasn’t able to add to his 28-goal tally this term but, having logged two goals and one assist across the 180-minute semifinal, he laid on two of City’s goals in the big one. Tom Bayliss had a quiet afternoon by the spectacular standards he has set himself in his debut campaign but the teenage prodigy showed enough touches of quality in the second half to remind nervous City fans that he is the other asset most likely to attract attention from above during the close season. The hope must be, however, that, having taken one step up the ladder, Mark Robins can now convince the players and, more important perhaps, their agents, that they are best advised to remain in familiar surroundings for at least another term
Big screen villain
There was a slightly surreal note to the post-match proceedings as a chorus of booing broke out during the presentation of the winners’ medals. The mystery was quickly solved as the stadium’s big screens zoomed in on City chairman Tim Fisher, the man that City’s supporters most like to hate even in moments of supreme joy.
That’s unlikely to improve any time soon but he can perhaps polish his image a tad if he refrains from another summer selling spree and even (let’s think big) gives Mark Robins the wherewithal to draft in some fresh talent to maintain that upward momentum.
Better team won
As so often this season, City supporters filled the 12th-man role admirably as they roared their side to an imperious second-half performance. When Mark Robins’s men kicked off after the restart they were facing a wall of Sky Blue and that was surely a factor as they took the game by the scruff of the neck with three goals in the space of 20 thrilling minutes.
The first and third were magnificent and although the second – equally valuable, of course – was a touch on the lucky side surely even Notts County’s absentee supporters must concede that, as at Meadow Lane, the better team won.
Goals fit for surroundings
Paul Tisdale, right, a man who seems set to leave Exeter after a thoroughly honourable 12-year reign, would clearly have devoted a lot of his pre-match preparation to nullifying the goal threat of McNulty and Max Biamou. What a massive plus for Mark Robins, then, that full-backs Jordan Willis and Jack Grimmer reproduced their goal-scoring heroics against Stoke City with two goals fit to grace any occasion at the national stadium.
Never in doubt!
It’s almost as if City feel compelled to make life hard for themselves and their supporters. Cruising at 3-0 with 20 minutes to play, seemingly long past the stage of unforced errors, they pitched on three fresh attackers and on a number of occasions allowed themselves to ignore an obvious pass and bid for personal glory.
But Kyle Edwards opened a crack for the Grecians in the closing seconds of normal time and had Jayden Stockley made a cleaner connection with either of his two opportunities in the ‘bonus’ five minutes who knows what might have happened? Nahh … never in doubt!