Western Morning News (Saturday)
Exeter are well placed for promotion run-in
SECOND place with nine games to go, a two-point cushion above the play-off zone and with a game in hand. It is fair to say that most people connected to Exeter City – if not all – would have jumped at that position if offered to them back in pre-season.
Today, the Grecians can further enhance their automatic promotion claims by winning their home clash against Stevenage, who arrive in Devon having won just three of their last 22 games. They are without a win in nine, in the midst of an injury crisis, haven’t played since a 2-1 home defeat to Northampton on March 15, due to a Covid outbreak, and sit just one place above the dreaded dropzone.
In a last throw of the dice to preserve their Football League status, Stevenage even sacked manager Paul Tisdale, the former Grecians boss, and replaced him with the wily and experienced Scot Steve Evans. No prizes for guessing who will be the pantomime villain at St James Park today then. But while Stevenage are in crisis, City must look to take advantage.
Their form is the polar opposite. One defeat in 14 has seen the Grecians pick up an outstanding 31 points from the last 14 matches and have people believing this might just be the year that they end their ten year stay in the basement.
“It is a good place to be, but it is a reflection on the form and the effort,” boss Matt Taylor says, reflecting on Exeter’s league position. “Even within that form, the results have been by such fine margins with narrow victories and hard-fought draws, which shows how tough and how tight this league is and it will be no different this weekend.
“There will be a lot to play for, for both sides, and when you look at their squad, they were many people’s outsiders to be challenging for promotion at the start of the season. They have had a difficult campaign, but they still have a good group of core players.
“We know some of them well. We know Christy Pym, Jake Taylor and Jamie Reid, so we have an idea of what they can hold. Player and squad-wise, they are still in a good position and I expect, with a manager that knows how to get the best out of his players, them to start getting results. We have to make sure it doesn’t start on Saturday.”
Evans has plenty of experience and has been tasked with the job of keeping Stevenage up. Where that leaves Tisdale, the man who brought League football back to Exeter and enjoyed back-to-back promotions in 2008 and 2009, is anyone’s guess after disastrous spells at Bristol Rovers (six wins in 21 games) and now Stevenage (three wins in 21)
“Yes,” Taylor said when asked if he was surprised Stevenage had got rid of the man that twice brought him to St James Park. “It’s always surprising when you see a manager lose his job and a manager you know and have worked with lose their job, but it is the beast of the industry and the brutality of football management.
“It’s a results-based industry, as we well know, and the chairman and powers that be at Stevenage will have felt the results weren’t going in the right direction and they weren’t picking up enough points.
“They will want to give the new manager time to turn things round and with nine or ten games left in the season, that is enough time to make changes, so we will watch it unfold from afar.
“I haven’t spoken to him… the last few messages I have had with him have been: ‘sorry how it finished at MK Dons, sorry how it finished at Bristol Rovers…’ He and Mel Gwinnett will need time to reflect and see what’s next for them. But as someone that has worked with those guys, you don’t like to see it happen.”
The Grecians will give Tim Dieng every chance of being fit for today’s game after he went off at half-time against Oldham Athletic last week with a tight hamstring.
Callum Rowe was recalled from being an unused sub for Bath City to start at Port Vale on Tuesday and after being thrust straight into first team and doing well, such was his performance that Taylor says he would have no qualms in playing him again, if needs be.
Nigel Atangana serves the second of a three-match ban, while Harry Kite, Sam Nombe, Jonathan Grounds, Kyle Taylor are also injured. Pierce Sweeney should recover from a bug doing the rounds in the City camp.