Let’s be honest, Exeter offered nothing. Their approach is fine, I can deal with it, and the result was our doing as much as anything, but they offered zilch. They didn’t defend particularly well, they broke play down, slowed the game to a standstill and managed it well, but when the ball was in play, they were comfortably the worst team we’ve seen this season. We’ve beaten teams and I’ve boldly stated they’ll be fine, but Exeter? I can’t see them staying out of the bottom four with the same approach.
As for us, we began the second half on the front foot and went close within minutes of the restart. After a long throw from Adam Jackson wasn’t cleared, the ball dropped to Freddie Draper just outside the box. The striker took aim and fired a powerful effort that cannoned off the woodwork before being cleared by Pierce Sweeney. It was an instinctive shot, a decent effort and could have brought a goal.
The issue beyond that, as Michael Skubala pointed out afterward, was us trying to score the perfect goal. Our success this season has been on outperforming xG, not overthinking chances or overpassing. Yesterday, I think we lost sight of that across the front. In truth, on 56 minutes, we should have taken the lead.
Firstly, Rob Street went one-on-one with Whitworth after getting in behind, but the keeper made a smart save. The ball was cleared, we recycled from a throw and Draper surged into the area. He found House who was in a great position to shoot, but he unselfishly served up Collins, on a tighter angle. I’d have loved House to crack it, but instead it rolled out wide leaving Collins with little to aim at, and the keeper saved again.
I thought we looked more of a threat when Hamer came on. He is about more than his long throw, but it is a weapon and one I like to see from the start. Him coming on suggested we needed to do a bit more, but that we were looking to win the game. We were – Exeter had two efforts in the 45 minutes of normal time, neither of them troubling us at all.
I thought we played well second half. Tom Bayliss stood out, driving forward at every opportunity. Adam Reach had a good game, really composed on the left and helping things to keep moving. We perhaps looked livelier once we added some natural width in Hackett and Ring; I felt we often got bogged down in the middle, a by-product of having Street, Draper, House and Collins all on the field at the same time. That said, those four weren’t bad, Draper the best of the bunch with another hard-working, industrious display.
Some people think we missed McGrandles, others saw Ivan Varfolomeev as a natural, like-for-like replacement. I think when you go from winning to losing, the natural assumption is the change was the issue, hence the analysis of missing McGrandles. I don’t think we did miss him, I think Ivan was solid, worked hard and he was tenacious. The difference was simply being clinical in front of goal.
To prove my point, our xG was 1.76. That’s higher than the wins against Peterborough and Luton Town. We scored six goals in those two games, from xG of 0.61 and 1.29. The average ratings readers give the players will see this game somewhere in the low sixes in total I imagine, but I actually think we played just as well as we have in any other game. We created, we pressed high, we restricted our opposition to virtually nothing. The two reasons you’ll rate the players lower is we didn’t win, and everyone expected us to beat Exeter City.
On 70 minutes there was a bizarre moment that I hope gets explained. The referee stopped the game for no fewer than six minutes. The ball went out of play, he was over with the fourth official and nobody seemed to know what was going on. I checked the time and it was just past 70 minutes. The throw-in was finally taken on 76. How on earth we only got nine minutes, I’ll never know. That incident seemed to involve Ben House and one of their lads, but no idea what for.
We had players going down, one injured, but play continued and he rose like Lazarus when play didn’t stop. Like I said, we’ve done it, no complaints, but the referee has to clamp down on it. When Johnny Yefko went off, he was down for a while, then instead of coming off at the nearest point, he ambled across the field for no fewer than 45 seconds before being replaced. The disinterested referee, clearly preferring the ball out of play, did nothing.
It’s mad, isn’t it, that I’ve complained about referees being too picky with bookings, and yesterday we had a guy absolutely in love with his whistle, but seemingly not his cards. Why, when we waste time, do we see more yellows than anyone, but when the boot is on the other foot, it’s just a shrug and a smile? I know, different referees have different ideas, but they shouldn’t. Dangerous play and a high boot should be uniform (yes, that again) and if you book a player for time-wasting, and he keeps doing it, have some balls to show a second yellow. Mind you, we can’t really complain about cards against Exeter can we? They were in credit coming here, so they’ll feel everything was okay.
Late in the game we continued to look for a breakthrough, with substitutes introduced to add fresh energy as mentioned. On 80 minutes, Tom Hamer launched one of his trademark long throws deep into the opposition area. The initial clearance fell back to Hamer, who returned a looping ball into the danger zone. Reeco Hackett met it with a well-timed header, but Whitworth was equal to it once more, turning the effort away.
I had a ‘he’s got to score that’ moment just before the end. Three subs combined, Ring to win the ball and play in Hamer, with the right-back lifting it into the path of Obikwu. For a moment I felt he must score, but instead he lashed his shot wildly over and wide. Looking back, the ball was spinning and the defender had covered well, but it felt like the game in a nutshell. Still, just in case, I quickly cashed out my 0–0 bet and put a couple of quid on an Exeter win. After all, if they were going to score, I might as well give myself a little comfort blanket.
It turns out the £40 I won was little comfort at all. I’d rather have not conceded, and moments later, Exeter snatched victory. Substitute Jack Aitchison broke into the box and delivered a low cross which was only half-cleared by the City defence. The loose ball dropped to Kevin McDonald on the edge of the area, unusually unmarked and with time, and his low strike found its way past Wickens for the win.
That was that. There were five minutes of injury time left, too few in my opinion, but it was game, set and match. Exeter had executed their plan, not to perfection, but with a little bit of luck and a lot of profligacy from us.
I’m not worried about yesterday. We created, we defended well, but the key moments turned against us. With a strong referee, we might have seen some football, rather than a lot of waiting around for the ball to come back in play, but he was just one element of a stodgy, challenging afternoon in typical autumn conditions. I don’t think there is any big story here, I don’t think there is a major flaw in our approach. We’ve had a little bit of luck in some matches this season, and so to waste a few chances and concede a soft, late losing goal is probably something that has been in the post a while.
What we need now is time to regroup, take the break to refocus and come back in a fortnight’s time to an entertaining game against an open and expansive opponent who likes the ball in play, namely *checks notes*….
Oh, FFS…..
Up the Imps.