Aaron Martin

[Hants_red]

Appreciating all the love from the fans

💬 Aaron Martin: "I have a lot of gratitude and praise towards them."

Exeter City defender Aaron Martin says the support he has received from fans this season has been really ‘touching’ following a good start to the campaign for him personally and the club.

www.exetercityfc.co.uk

 

[exeter-loyal]

He totally deserves it!!

 

[John William]

Yes. Whatever the real or imagined differences of opinion there may have been last season he has fought his way back into the team through excellent performances and deserves the support he has been getting here and elsewhere.

Matt T now has a real selection dilemma, as Dean Moxey is also playing well at present and is clearly better as central defender rather than full back. Perace also looks good and will relish the return trip to Carlisle

There is a strong case for playing all three of Martin, Pearce and Moxey with wing backs. However Sweeney would have to lose out in that formation. Tricky, but as the cliche goes a good problem to have.

 

[Grecian2K]

Huge congratulation to Aaron!! (And, despite us being top of the league the ONLY Grecian to feature in the L2 ratings team of the month on that FANTASTIC stats site that SEAGrecian has found for us on the L2 thread)

We'll probably never know the whole truth behind the so-called schism of last season but to have AM back and firing on all cylinders is surely a welcome and maybe unexpected bonus.

To see anyone battling back to the top of their game even in adversity surely makes it doubly admirable, not just for he man as a player but as a person too!

And, finally, as JW rightly says - IT'S A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE!!!

 

[Snoop Fog]

From what I've been told MT and A Martin didn't fall out. The problem was with Martin's defending in that he too often failed to make the first contact on the ball, something MT is very hot on. This seems to have improved but if you watch closely both Moxey and Parkes will win the 'first' ball on more occasions than Martin, despite Martin being physically bigger than both of them.

 

[dontpassback]

Echo the sentiment from many posters,a big well done to Aaron Martin and I hope it continues UTC !

 

[andrew p long]

I am delighted that both Aaron Martin and MT have been able to put last season behind them and to make it all work well for ECFC.

Most of what happened is fairly clear. Aaron was first choice centre half playing every game. City then went on an eight league game streak without a win and only four points. The last of those was away at Bury, a 2-0 defeat. In the post match interview MT had what was little short of a rant about the defending, particularly for the second goal, plainly directed at Aaron Martin ( though it didn’t look*that* bad).

MT also said he’d change the team next game and make changes in the transfer window, again plainly implying (to my mind) that Aaron Martin would be got rid of in the January transfer window. Under pressure and new to the job MT had made the cardinal error of criticising an individual player in public. It has been rumoured that Martin subsequently said words to the effect that MT was a rubbish manager; I have no idea whether that is true, but if he had it would have been entirely unsurprising.

Sure enough Martin was dropped and Moxey and O’Shea paired at centre half. City won the next three games. That pairing became first choice for the rest of the season and Martin barely kicked another ball; tellingly when another centre half were needed Sweeney got the nod.

I had said that sorting this issue was a real test of MT’s management. I am delighted that (in conjunction with Aaron Martin) he has passed that test with flying colours

 

[SEA Grecian]

Totally agree with all the comments on this thread. Aaron deserves huge credit for coming back to pre-season with the right attitude and playing so well in pre-season. However, let’s not forget how different it could have been. He only started on the opening day because Woody was injured and Matt Taylor wasn’t ready to trust Jack Sparkes. Aaron didn’t then play against Stevenage and only got back in the team because of Tom Parkes’ indiscretion. He’s taken his opportunity brilliantly but could very easily have spent most of the season on the bench

 

[IndoMike]

Martin should retain his place according to all reports. Recent signings who are not in the starting line-up must wait for an opportunity, although I know it's difficult for managers to leave out players who the club has recently invested in.
If a player is clearly rubbish or in bad form he must be "rested", but not just because he made one or two isolated mistakes.

 

[Joshyd123]

Even if it didn't work out for Aaron, at least he scored from the halfway line in City colours. Legend.