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Exeter City - Our finest point in History?

Saint James

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I saw my first game at SJP in 1977. I started going regularly in the early 1980's when we reached the quarter finals of The FA Cup and finished in our highest positions in League One for three consecutive seasons (Div 3 in old money). As a teenager I thought the early 1980's football was 'normal'. What I discovered soon after was that those relative 'halcyon' years were very much abnormal and by the mid to late 80's normal service had been resumed with crowds dropping to the low 2,000's, finishing near the basement of league two and new players being journeymen at the end of their career that frankly no-one else wanted.

The history of Exeter City throughout has been littered with financial crises and a reality that our club was going nowhere fast. We are about to go to Wembley for a 4th time in ten years, we have a stadium finally being redeveloped and without leading us to financial ruin and rather than being a bottom ten League two club are a sustainable top ten League Two club. We have developed and sold three million pound + players and have a thriving Academy that appears to be the envy of many clubs higher up the league pyramid.

Whatever the outcome of Monday we can all have real pride in our club. Only a few people wouldn't recognise the role that Tisdale, Tagg and Perryman have played in the transformation of Exeter City. Is this our high point as a club?
 

iscalad

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Coming 8th in L1 was our high point, or the one we got against Millwall in a "tropical" downpour. :)
 

Matt Russell

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Coming 8th in L1 was our high point, or the one we got against Millwall in a "tropical" downpour. :)
I'm thinking that Saint James was looking at a slightly wider picture.
 

DB9

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These sort of times i really appreciate, It doesn't happen often and i grab it with both hands. The team going to Wembley, Stadium looking like its fit for purpose, Academy being the envy of many teams and here we are, A small club in Devon (Not known for its football only a holiday destination) with a lot of positives. I want us to hold on to these times, Nurture them and grow as a club where in a few years we could become a established League 1 club looking to go up another level. We can only do this by all pulling in the same direction, There will be times when perhaps results don't go our way or the Academy hasn't produced another starlet and i don't want people to snipe and argue but realise pulling together things do get better. Let this not be our finest point in history but a start to something new. Whilest TT&P have done good things to our club lease not forget the volunteers, staff behind the scenes, They also have played a vital part on bringing this club back from when our name was md
 
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LOG

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Whilst concurring with the OP i think that the role of the Trust also needs to be mentioned as it's the stability of our ownership model which has allowed much of the other progress to be made.
 
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WXF

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And - not to diminish individual efforts - people have been appointed to advance the Trust's strategy
 

Exehausted

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Without doubt St.James. For me the fact that we are financially stable for just about the first time since the club went pro in the early 1900's is the reason it's our highest point. Even when we had the supposed good times, like the 77 promotion winning side or the money that we made from the cup run that you mentioned, or the title winning side, the books never balanced. I was in the club shop at the end of the 91/92 season talking to the commercial manager, Mike I think he was called, when the lady in back office came in. She announced that a shop that sold the club's lottery tickets had called in to say that they had the £1,000 winner. He literally went white. I said jokingly, "from the look on your face you'd think that the club hasn't got a £1,000". He said "we don't and that game has only been running a week, and now the big prize has gone people will stop buying the tickets. I don't know what we can do." That was in the supposed good times. Unsurprisingly we went into administration in September 1994.
I have also heard of a young apprentice grounds man, who was working under the legendary Sonny Clarke, being told on several occasions to go down and see Ivor to ask for his very small wage of about £60, because again, the club didn't have it. This was in the eighties I believe.
The reason that I will be at Wembley on Monday, when quite a few people who went last year aren't going to bother, is because at 62, it might never come again in my life time. When, as a 13 year old in 1969, I failed to get a ticket to the Man Utd match, I honestly thought a game against them would come around in a couple of seasons. It was 36 years! If you are still thinking about should you or shouldn't you go on Monday, just be aware that it might be a long time before it happens again.
 

feverpitch

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I don't repeat this to pi$$ on anyone's chips but it was under 4 years ago that we were insolvent enough to borrow money from the PFA despite having sold players for money before. I point it out to show that even within this unprecedented period of security under Trust ownership, financial problems are possible.

I certainly agree we are going in the right direction and long may the push for accountability, transparency and club self-sustainability continue. If it is allowed to stall due to complacency then we could easily be back to square one. Money is very easy to squander in football which is why it is good news that the infrastructure is being built after years of neglect

History tells there will be ups and downs and it would be foolish to think otherwise. Come Monday 5pm we'll know what league we will play in next season and with any promotion comes opportunities and risks. [ecfc]
 
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geoffwp

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Great posts by DB9 and Exehausted and the messages are so true. Grab this moment as it may not happen again, though I do like the positive looking to the future that DB has in saying let this be the start of something that goes even further.
 

tonykellowfan

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Surely winning the league by 10 points under Cooper was the finest point in our history?

I dunno how anyone can think that a wembley playoff is better than that.
 
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