Exeter City (H)

[Eavesy]

4 minutes ago, Burndens Bogs said:

20 points from the last 10 games.

Thought Sheehan was immense today,he made a couple of misplaced passes out of about 100.

That’s the problem though. With Sheehan in the team we end up making 100 passes instead of the 3 needed. He can do that all day and it looks good but we aren’t going anywhere.

We need to stop Sheehan spending all match collecting the ball off defenders, passing to winger, going getting off winger, running to middle, passing to other winger, rinse repeat.

We suddenly created things when we started lobbing it in box. Either from gale or Christie or Conway. It might not be pretty, but with the keeper flapping at everything we looked far more dangerous.

 

 

[Matt Lofthouse]

Not read out yet but thought all substitutions improved us today,  especially gale, Desmond and demps. 
 

3 points on another flat performance with no stand out performers and again zero fucks given. 

Edited December 13, 2025 by Matt Lofthouse

[Johnnyrotten]

32 minutes ago, Burndens Bogs said:

20 points from the last 10 games.

Thought Sheehan was immense today,he made a couple of misplaced passes out of about 100.

That Dalby goal at Huddersfield does feel like one of those season changing moments (the opposite of Charles infamous miss at Pompey).  We were 5 points behind Huddersfield before he scored and they had a game in hand and we were half way down the league.  Now we're 6 points in front with us having played a game less.

Dalby's only 2 goals have been our equalisers in the only 2 games we've won after being behind.

[noxid]

That second goal finally killed off Exeter and that bastard drummer 

[Kane57]

Funny ol game innit. Consensus around us was that Sheehan was lucky not to be subbed at HT

[Johnnyrotten]

44 minutes ago, worthy10 said:

1st half we created next to nothing, had 1 shot on target. Quality passing, if at all was done 40yds from goal? What's great possession?

Burstow does little outside the box, his 1st touch is often heavy. Granted he's had few chances on goal for a couple of games.

In the last 40 odd years I've seen some awful first half performances (quite a few last season and quite a few this season, away) and that wasn't in the top 200.  There will have been 5 worse in the majority of the previous 40 years.

Did we create much?  No.  Did I enjoy watching some of our play?  Definitely.  1 shot on target in a first half is commonplace even for top sides but its still possible to do other things well.  Eg ACD skinning his full back with that turn, Conway's skill in his own half,  EE and Sheehan's sharp accurate passing, Christie and Burstow's shots from distance, they count for zero if all we can do is tot up how many times the keeper has to make a save. For awful play, Northampton and Burton away or Exeter home last season (etc).

[Johnnyrotten]

57 minutes ago, worthy10 said:

1st half we created next to nothing, had 1 shot on target. Quality passing, if at all was done 40yds from goal? What's great possession?

Burstow does little outside the box, his 1st touch is often heavy. Granted he's had few chances on goal for a couple of games.

Agreed on Burstow BTW, he isn't playing well.  But I thought he was better today than he has been for about 2 months and I was surprised he was hooked so early, on another day he's the one tapping in the equaliser but those chances just haven't happened for him.  Bottom line is we are struggling up front and today was more evidence of it, Forss isn't the answer in terms of being a potential regular scorer.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

None of our strikers are particularly regular scorers.

They all have potential to be though.

Not that it matters if opponents focus on stopping them, and others score instead.

[Kane57]

Proper Elmander performance from Forss. Lots of pointless running to no end 

[Johnnyrotten]

7 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

None of our strikers are particularly regular scorers.

They all have potential to be though.

Not that it matters if opponents focus on stopping them, and others score instead.

I'm not sure today's winner was anything to do with opponents being focused on stopping Dalby?  And we didn't score in our previous home game, that was 2 points dropped, and couldn't put the game to bed v 10 men on Tuesday which would have been another 2 if the ref had given the penalty.  It might be a bit optimistic to think we can keep winning games (against the top half teams) without strikers making an impact.

[Domcarey1]

Another important 3 points today.
We’re 3 points off the autos yet haven’t fully clicked, in my opinion.

Booing them off at half time was a head scratcher, we were a bit safe with our passing & their goal was a rare lapse from Teddy, but we were in control of the game. 
I like how ruthless Schuey is with subs & squad selection. Morley, Cogley & Taylor  haven’t had a look in since Swindon, Cissoko was really poor today in the 1st half & got hooked. 

Bringing Tutu on for Christie changed the game today, gave us an outlet on the right & set up the 1st goal. 
 

[wakey]

Fuck me there's some proper bollocks on this thread.

Dread to think what it'd be like if we hadn't won.

 

 

edit: not referring to above post btw

Edited December 13, 2025 by wakey

[Johnnyrotten]

4 minutes ago, Domcarey1 said:

Another important 3 points today.
We’re 3 points off the autos yet haven’t fully clicked, in my opinion.

Booing them off at half time was a head scratcher, we were a bit safe with our passing & their goal was a rare lapse from Teddy, but we were in control of the game. 
I like how ruthless Schuey is with subs & squad selection. Morley, Cogley & Taylor  haven’t had a look in since Swindon, Cissoko was really poor today in the 1st half & got hooked. 

Bringing Tutu on for Christie changed the game today, gave us an outlet on the right & set up the 1st goal. 
 

I was in the crowd and nobody around me was booing, maybe some pantomime stuff for the ridiculous 1 minute added time, the crowd were never on the player's backs today.

Taylor is injured, he did his groin at Swindon, not dropped from the squad.  JDC hasn't been in the league squad for ages, he was just standing in at Swindon same as Morley, Dalby, Forino, Miller etc.

Cissoko was no worse today than in every other league game, the head scratcher was how SS picked him in the first place and I'm not sure how SS gets credit for taking him off when he shouldn't have been on, given not one but two better options on the bench.  

 

[Wanderlust]

Relief was my overwhelming emotion at the end.

We knew exactly how Caldwell would set them up, we knew the importance of the first goal and then we go and gift them one.

Everybody was saying “we’re playing some good stuff” in the first 20 minutes and then an almighty fuck up served to emphasise the difference between looking fancy and actually sticking the ball in the net. I feared the worst.

The subs did the job for us, but right up to the end I wasn’t confident we’d hold on. But we did - the 3 points we really had to get to stay in the playoff mix - but fuck me, it was a rollercoaster ride.

Temporarily up to fourth with Stevenage and Barnsley on our tails but we’re hanging on in there and it’s so far so good, but we’re hanging on need to make the most of this next run of games. 
 

We are definitely a top six team but IMO we need to think long and hard about the January window.

 

[jmjhb]

2 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Relief was my overwhelming emotion at the end.

We knew exactly how Caldwell would set them up, we knew the importance of the first goal and then we go and gift them one.

Everybody was saying “we’re playing some good stuff” in the first 20 minutes and then an almighty fuck up served to emphasise the difference between looking fancy and actually sticking the ball in the net. I feared the worst.

The subs did the job for us, but right up to the end I wasn’t confident we’d hold on. But we did - the 3 points we really had to get to stay in the playoff mix - but fuck me, it was a rollercoaster ride.

Temporarily up to fourth with Stevenage and Barnsley on our tails but we’re hanging on in there and it’s so far so good, but we’re hanging on need to make the most of this next run of games. 
 

We are definitely a top six team but IMO we need to think long and hard about the January window.

 

This seems like an exceptionally negative view.

[Wanderlust]

3 minutes ago, jmjhb said:

This seems like an exceptionally negative view.

Not at all. It’s genuinely what I felt - and every honest fan I know felt at the time.

Weren’t you relieved when we got back into it?

Although TBF the bit about the window was just my opinion. 
 

 

Edited December 13, 2025 by Wanderlust

[jmjhb]

We actually increased the gap from the chasing pack because Stevenage and Barnsley were the only two teams below us and not in the relegation battle to win today. 

I must say looking forward to facing Stevenage and Barnsley's knackered squads from their fixture pile-ups from all their games in hand and extra cup games. Barnsley, already with 3 games in hand and another gameday postponed because of the FA Cup, in particular will be playing twice a week from now until the end of the season. Christ, they're going to be burnt out!

Better to have the points on board.

Time to look up, not down.

Edited December 13, 2025 by jmjhb

[Domcarey1]

47 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I was in the crowd and nobody around me was booing, maybe some pantomime stuff for the ridiculous 1 minute added time, the crowd were never on the player's backs today.

Taylor is injured, he did his groin at Swindon, not dropped from the squad.  JDC hasn't been in the league squad for ages, he was just standing in at Swindon same as Morley, Dalby, Forino, Miller etc.

Cissoko was no worse today than in every other league game, the head scratcher was how SS picked him in the first place and I'm not sure how SS gets credit for taking him off when he shouldn't have been on, given not one but two better options on the bench.  

 

 

[Wanderlust]

6 minutes ago, jmjhb said:

We actually increased the gap from the chasing pack because Stevenage and Barnsley were the only two teams below us and not in the relegation battle to win today. 

I must say looking forward to facing Stevenage and Barnsley's knackered squads from their fixture pile-ups from all their games in hand and extra cup games. Barnsley, already with 3 games in hand and another gameday postponed because of the FA Cup, in particular will be playing twice a week from now until the end of the season. Christ, they're going to be burnt out!

Better to have the points on board.

Time to look up, not down.

Speculation rather than fact though and the “points on the board” thing is a pundits cliche because the reality is they have no clue what will happen. 
As is “they’re going to be burnt out” when the motivation of getting into the playoffs is driving them on.
Nobody knows, including me.

Look - we’re still in the first half of the season and as attractive as our football has been at times, we’ve shown vulnerability and lack of ruthlessness so there’s no harm in suggesting we should be thinking about improving in January.

Seems a more positive option than talking about how great we are and bullshitting about how we’re gonna stroll it. We are great at times but there is massive room for improvement - just look at how nearly every player in our squad is a hero one week and useless the next according to folk on this forum. 

We all want us to get promoted, but personally - and that means in my opinion - I am not convinced we will do it unless we step up another gear.

 

 

[Wanderlust]

1 minute ago, Domcarey1 said:

 

I heard booing. I thought they were booing the ref.

[Traf]

The pass from Dempsey and the subsequent control and goal from Gale was one sublime move, the highlight of a fairly uninspiring game.

But the record says we won, we got three points, job done.

Much debate about Sheehan again, but he's the first on the team sheet at home for me, he reads the game so much better than his team-mates, particularly his full backs.

[Walkden White]

Just now, Wanderlust said:

I heard booing. I thought they were booing the ref.

Absolutely the few that were booing were booing the dick of a ref and the pathetic 1 minute added time despite all their time wasting. Even SS called that wrong in his post match interview. 

[Domcarey1]

53 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I was in the crowd and nobody around me was booing, maybe some pantomime stuff for the ridiculous 1 minute added time, the crowd were never on the player's backs today.

Taylor is injured, he did his groin at Swindon, not dropped from the squad.  JDC hasn't been in the league squad for ages, he was just standing in at Swindon same as Morley, Dalby, Forino, Miller etc.

Cissoko was no worse today than in every other league game, the head scratcher was how SS picked him in the first place and I'm not sure how SS gets credit for taking him off when he shouldn't have been on, given not one but two better options on the bench.  

 

Schuey thought we got booed off, he referenced it in his interview . The folk around me in the north lower seemed to be booing due to frustration with the team and/or the referee.

The point around Schuey & the squad/subs was a general point about how he doesn’t have favourites (Evatt), he views the game the way I’ve just seen it he doesn’t suffer fools. If you play poorly, you won’t play the next game.

Cissoko has been good in his cameos off the bench but agree that he doesn’t justify a start. Are you saying that you wouldn’t pay 1.2m for him at the end of the season ? 😂

[Wanderlust]

12 minutes ago, Traf said:

The pass from Dempsey and the subsequent control and goal from Gale was one sublime move, the highlight of a fairly uninspiring game.

But the record says we won, we got three points, job done.

Much debate about Sheehan again, but he's the first on the team sheet at home for me, he reads the game so much better than his team-mates, particularly his full backs.

Here’s the debate:

When Sheehan comes on to drop back and play quarterback, we sacrifice a player further forward.

 

BTW Dempsey was outstanding again.

Edited December 13, 2025 by Wanderlust

[Domcarey1]

1 minute ago, Wanderlust said:

Here’s the debate:

When Sheehan comes on to drop back and play quarterback, we sacrifice a player further forward.