Western Morning News (Saturday)
Taylor relishing having exciting options
EXETER City manager Matt Taylor is relishing the return of winger Josh Coley as it will give him more exciting options for his Grecians side.
Coley is yet to play for City after picking up an injury in pre-season, but he is back in full training and catching the Grecian’s boss’s eye.
Today’s clash with Sutton United will come too soon for the former Maidenhead United winger to be involved, but with Owura Edwards also pressing claims for a start in the first XI, Taylor is suddenly spoilt for options after injuries disrupted the first part of the campaign.
“Josh has not had a game yet and the game last night [Wednesday’s Under-23s 3-2 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers] came just too soon,” Taylor said. “It was perfect for Archie [Collins], but Josh is a week10 days behind Archie.
“He has trained with us now for about a week, and trained properly, so that shows you just how close he is.
“We will either have a practice or an in-house game of some sorts next week, which he will obviously feature in, but he will probably be available from Monday onwards.
“He just needs exposure to what Archie had last night which is exposure to a proper game scenario, so we are really pleased with where he is but the same with any player coming back from injury, the constant worry is how they react at a certain stage.
“But Josh is training fully now, he looks fit and he looks strong and we are seeing on a daily basis that he can play as well. Having Owura (Edwards) and Josh, it gives us more options.”
Owura was arguably Exeter’s stand-out performer in the defeat to Wolves, and it is testament to him and his professionalism that a young player on loan from a Championship club should be so focused and committed to the Under-23 side of a club he is helping out.
The 20-year-old can count himself unfortunate that he has perhaps not been utilised more by the Grecians but performing as he did for the Under-23s can only help stake his claim for more regular first team football.
“He’s got that character-wise and personality-wise, he’s been excellent since he walked through the door,” Taylor said. “He’s been unlucky that he has not played more.
“We didn’t put him on against Scunthorpe because he hadn’t trained in the build up to that game, he had a sore foot from the week before, but we know his impact and we hope to know what he will keep on bringing when he comes onto that pitch.
“He did it away at Harrogate in slightly different circumstances because we had 10 men, but his drive and his speed and his awareness of what he needs to do out of possession as well has been striking for a young player because they don’t often get that responsibility out of possession.
“He has shown that in abundance and it was important we got him on the pitch on Wednesday night and got some valuable minutes into him. Hopefully, he will be able to affect it this weekend and he’s pushing closer than he was the previous week because he’s had a week’s training as well.”
Today’s clash with Sutton United is the first time that the two clubs will have locked horns but, while there is no history to the fixture, they are a club that Taylor is quite familiar with.
“Because of Sutton’s success last season, they are a team that we watched quite a lot,” Taylor said. “They have a few players that are on our radar and we watched a lot of their games.
“They have some excellent players and kept that core group of players and added some quality on top, but they have such a strong spine, they are a very physical side and wellorganised with a fantastic structure, so full credit to what they did last season and what they are doing this season.”