EXETER CITY V NORTHAMPTON TOWN MDT

[The Proper Chap]

First half we were very average and lucky to go in 1 - 1.

Second half was totally different, we were excellent from the 46th minute onwards.

Bowman and Fisher were immense with their work rate and physicality, they bullied the sizeable Northampton centre backs, it was delightful to watch. Bowman has been getting plenty of stick recently however he was back to his best in the second half, he isn't going to bang in 25 goals a season however if he performs like he did after half time we will achieve things as a team.

Collins and Big Nige were superb and Law upped his game when we really needed it, for me he was at fault for their first goal with a weak challenge out wide.

Williams and Sparkes were obviously excellent. We need to get Sparkes on the ball more often, he is one of the best crossers of a ball I have seen in a City shirt, that free kick of his was top notch as well.

Great day at SJP, loved it.

 

[Anonymous]

Finally we had some good commentators on iFollow / BBC radio Devon commentary. The play by play commentator today (Pierce?) was very good, makes a huge difference. Kirky of course giving excellent colour as usual. Would like to hear more from this pairing, much better than the dross we get some weeks.

 

[Hants_red]

Matt Taylor's interview

💬 Matt Taylor: "Second half, I thought we were more like ourselves."

Exeter City manager Matt Taylor praised his side’s start to the second half as City beat Northampton Town 3-2 at St James Park.

www.exetercityfc.co.uk

 

[dontpassback]

What a disgracefully low attendance. How fickle are the Exeter supporters

It might be the fact that we are in December,had a cup game last Sunday,and people are prioritising their spend,so calling fans out as fickle is probably not the best term to use,don’t forget it was the fickle fans who saved this club in the dark days and who now own the majority of it !

 

[Avening Posse]

Great win that. Real entertaining stuff and a perfect start to a really important month for us

 

[GJW]

It might be the fact that we are in December,had a cup game last Sunday,and people are prioritising their spend,so calling fans out as fickle is probably not the best term to use,don’t forget it was the fickle fans who saved this club in the dark days and who now own the majority of it !

Agreed. Home fixtures in early and mid December are generally lower as people are watching their pennies carefully or spending them on Christmas presents and preparations. They’ll all be coming out to play on Boxing Day, where we’ll probably get 6,000. I expect 4-4.5k for the Walsall game at best, as it’s the last shopping weekend before Chrimbo. I’ll be honest I thought we’d have more there today but comparing against previous seasons I’d say around 4K was fine.

 

[Grecian2K]

At least today's attendance was a distinct improvement on last Wednesday's!

 

[grecIAN Harris]

First half we were very average and lucky to go in 1 - 1.

Second half was totally different, we were excellent from the 46th minute onwards.

Bowman and Fisher were immense with their work rate and physicality, they bullied the sizeable Northampton centre backs, it was delightful to watch. Bowman has been getting plenty of stick recently however he was back to his best in the second half, he isn't going to bang in 25 goals a season however if he performs like he did after half time we will achieve things as a team.

Collins and Big Nige were superb and Law upped his game when we really needed it, for me he was at fault for their first goal with a weak challenge out wide.

Williams and Sparkes were obviously excellent. We need to get Sparkes on the ball more often, he is one of the best crossers of a ball I have seen in a City shirt, that free kick of his was top notch as well.

Great day at SJP, loved it.

I agree with most of that apart from the bit about Williams. The goal and setting up the second (which, incidently, came from the left) he was his usual predictable self. Jink, jink, jink, cut back on to left and get smothered. He gives Sweeney very little movement to pass to (probably because he doesn't trust his own control on his right foot enough).
As for the rest of the game, the first half looked like they'd done their homework on us and shut us down early at every opportunity and Vadane Oliver was causing our defence a lot of problems to which we had little in answers to. When they went a goal up I feared the worst because we didn't ever look like a side that was going to do anything against them. As The Chimp says, Law was totally at fault for the goal for not going through the challenge, dare I even say bottling it. Williams gets us back in the gam very quickly, which we needed. The thing I liked about his goal was him chopping it back into the near post for a change instead of going for the predictable curler into the far post. It's harder for the keeper to change direction and get down to.
The second half we came out like a completely different side. We upped the tempo of the game by about three gears which meant our passing and movement was so much sharper and they didn't have an answer to it. The only thing that did disappoint me a little was having gone 3-1 up, we didn't really go for the jugular and stepped off. Going to 4-4-3 didn't help either as Deano was having one of his off days already and when he went to left back he was like a cat chasing a paper bag in the wind, just chasing here, there and everywhere and showing no positional discipline.
All in all, a big result against one of the better sides to visit The Park so far this season.

 

[Hants_red]

It's not often in a game when you think to yourself "We really could with a fourth goal"!

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

It might be the fact that we are in December,had a cup game last Sunday,and people are prioritising their spend,so calling fans out as fickle is probably not the best term to use

Indeed...The attendance on Saturday was very near to the one predicted by the Gate Committee( only 16 out !)

Expect a similar attendance at home to Walsall.