Local boy Jay goes from boy to man and now leader at Exeter
IF 2020/21 was his breakout season, then Matt Jay is well on the way to surpassing it this campaign, and showing why the academy graduate is the right man to lead Exeter City to glory.
Having scored 20 goals in what was a season almost exclusively played behind-closed-doors, the Grecians attacker was a bright light in what ultimately ended up being a disappointing outcome for City as they missed out on the play-offs on the final day.
With Jake Taylor moving on, there was a vacancy as club captain, and the 25-year-old jumped at the opportunity to skipper his boyhood club when manager Matt Taylor offered it to him, citing Jay as an inspiration to the rest of the squad and the talented youngsters coming through.
Jay started the season slowly, and has been taken off penalty taking duty after three misses, but he has bounced back with a bang, netting in his last four games to take his total to nine in 16 appearances.
Sam Nombe has grabbed the headlines as the marquee main man up front following his arrival from MK Dons in the summer. But it is Jay who is the leading scorer - not just at the club, but also in League Two, with only Luke Armstrong, of Harrogate Town, matching him – and the Grecian is proving he isn’t going to be a one-season wonder.
“I’m happy going under the radar a bit with goals, and feel like I am in a good place,” Jay said, after a week where he scored the vital equaliser at Crawley Town and then the late winner at home to Mansfield Town.
“I have scored four completely different goals in quick succession, so I am feeling good, and the wins and scoring at will has been good for us forward players. After the penalty misses I was a bit low at that point but I feel like I am bouncing back and four in four is something I am happy with.
“I don’t want to be a one season wonder, so it has been important to back it up with goals and assists and long may it continue.
“I’m in a better position than last year and that ended up well, and we have plenty of people chipping in. Sam wants to be the top scorer but I keep chipping away but keep going under the radar, and I am more than happy to do it. Sam has been a really good signing and it spurs us on with great competition and all trying to help each other out.”
Jay, it is fair to say, had never really cemented his place in the Grecians side since making his debut in 2013, but after the coronavirus pandemic shut down football at the start of 2020, when the players returned to training two months later, he came back fitter and stronger having made the most of the lockdown period to improve himself.
Asked about how he approached the lockdown period, Jay said that he didn’t want to give the manager any excuses not to pick him when they returned to playing and the fact that there was nothing else to do meant he could focus even more on improving himself.
“Those comments were great for me and gave me the confidence that he did think I had improved,” the Torbay-born player said.
“My technical abilities have always been there but not physical attributes as I’m not the biggest or the quickest, but I was able to transform my body and make myself quicker, fitter, stronger and sharper.
“It was partly down to having nothing to do, but every day I worked hard, going out for my runs, doing as much as I could in the garden, looking after my diet, but also having a mental refocus. No-one knew what was going to happen but I wanted to be the best version of myself.
“We were given programmes but I wanted to do a bit more, I came back in good shape, and the rest is history, and didn’t want to give him any excuses to not play me when we came back from lockdown.”
The form that Jay showed when he returned was so strong that Taylor was even happy to let Nicky Law leave the club in January as he was being kept out of the team by the academy product who, eight years after his debut as a 17-year-old, had finally cemented his spot.
“At the time I was 17 and probably the club was in a difficult position and it was not the right time for it,” he said. “I had to wait a long time to establish myself, but it was clear I needed to work hard and commit to playing and developing my game, and it took probably five years since then playing properly after that, and commitment and hard work.”
When Jake Taylor departed in the summer for Stevenage, there was a vacancy as club captain, while not perhaps the obvious choice, Jay’s previously experience with the U23s, his form on the pitch, and his leadership qualities – he is doing a degree in business management off the pitch as well – made him an ideal candidate, particularly having come through the youth system, and there was a never a moment he wasn’t going to say yes when asked.
“I think he selected me for the role because of my attitude,” Jay said, when asked what made him the right choice. “It felt the right fit for me. I have had to adjust a few things and be more vocal and dig them out when needed and encourage people, but not had to do that too often and in my career other than in the U23s.
“It has been a learning curve and I feel like I am improving in that role every week and have had some brilliant captains beforehand and along the way, and have good people around me, and Matt has been in that position, and feels like it is coming together.
“Jake was similar to me in that he was quite relatable and he was a really good guy and that goes a long way and maybe not the most vocal, but he learnt and the performances backed it up and in the action and on the pitch for the vast majority of the games, and Matt felt that - touch wood - I should be out there most weeks if the performances continue.”
The Grecians are currently on what is a club record 14 games without defeat in all competitions, have lost just once this season, and one short of equalling the league record of 13 without defeat, and the 15 games at St James Park unbeaten is the longest in English football’s top four divisions at present.
But City are only fourth in the table having drawn eight of the 14 league matches they have played. Following back-to-back wins, though, they are looking up the table and at another promotion tilt, having narrowly missed out either in playoffs finals or last day heartbreak to make the shoot-out five seasons running.
“The wins have been such a weight off our shoulders,” he added. “The performances haven’t been far away over the last five or six games and some we should have been winning, so we felt so close, but the longer the draws went on, the harder it got.
“But we have been improving and getting closer as a group, and now we need to keep the good run going and all of a sudden the draws don’t look so bad as we have picked up another three points, and there is a very happy group of people in there.
“The term we spoke about this week was building some momentum as we are at an important stage of the season and the momentum is there and seven points from nine, we would bite your hand off from that, and we are looking at next week already to keep the ball rolling.”
After his starring role last season, and his strong start to this campaign, Taylor is expecting bids to come in for the captain sooner, and rumours recently linked the attacker with Portsmouth, Ipswich, and Millwall – although that was news to Jay when asked if there was any truth to the reports.
“I didn’t know anything,” he said. “But I am very happy where I am and I enjoy being here. Exeter has been so good to me, and at some point it might be time to move on, but right now I am focused on this season, and I want to be the one to get us promoted.
“It is my boyhood club, I trained here from very young, and I never thought about anything else, so it’s an honour and a club so close to my heart and means so much to people in the city.
“I feel like I’m in such a privileged position and love being a part of it. It has been so great because of the journey, the club, the relationship with the fans. I love the day-to-day part, the organisation, the training, and leading the boys out in front of the crowd is amazing and I am very grateful and love every minute of it and long may it continue.”