Exeter City vs Newport County matchday thread

[Antony Moxey]

had maccaa drifted offside?

Who cares, he wasn't interfering with play, was nowhere near the ball, didn't influence defenders and didn't block the keeper or his view. Perfectly good goal.

 

[Moomin Grecian]

Actually thought the subs were ineffectual and we'd have been better sticking with the original team. Stockleigh will have to be a lot fitter if he wants to challenge Reuban.

To be honest it was tough for them to make much of an impression as we went to a 4-1-4-1 and basically sat on the 18 yard line for the final 10 minutes which was risky. They will both be excellent signings, I have no doubt.

Newport were much better first half and Nouble is a real handful. Second half we were much better and I was so impressed with Reid and Holmes going forward. Holmes' goal was superb and how the ref misses the handball on the line, I don't know.

Sweeney, Brown and JMT were excellent plus I agree James had a decent game and looked for more dynamic plus he played some lovely passes throughout.

Great win and on to the next. Fancy Newport for top 7.

 

[Red Devon]

Switching Holmes and Taylor on 40 mins turned the game for us all of sudden we started to create chances and look dangerous...second half we looked strong all over the pitch and fully deserved our win...Reid was superb in pushing Newport back and playing people in with goal scoring chances...Super performance from James passed it really well long and short and can't remember him giving it away all afternoon reminded me of the performance he put in away at Luton last season, clear MoM for me!

 

[Moomin Grecian]

It's a good point re Holmes as he looks for more effective on the right for me. He loves to cut in on his left, as we saw for his goal and he can also still go on the outside and cross with his right. On FIRE!

 

[Slogger]

Newport were a lot better than I was expecting, it was a tough game all in all, I just wish we could get a better quality pass together the balls were just as loose as ever and the long balls were way over hit for Ruben to try and run for he looks like he running in slow motion. Defensively sound today.

 

[elginCity]

Nouble is a real handful

Certainly is, a big old unit to have on the wing too.

 

[dontpassback]

A very good win over a Newport side who will surprise quite a few this season,our defensive displays at home have been excellent,and the goal from lee Holmes was a worthy winner.last season we would have drawn that,but we seem to made of sterner stuff and whilst it is early days,the confidence with winning can only be a good thing UTC (clap)

 

[richard_portland]

That's more like it , make the Park a fortress and then the only way is up.

Three straight home wins and without conceding. Very well done city, great to see and hopefully there is more to come. Home wins not as impossible as all that after all.

I thought it was another very battling performance , which got a lot more attacking as the second half wore on. I hope we do build some larger leads though as we are bound to concede sooner or later. Can't believe we didn't get a penalty though which looked as blatant as you can get.

Very positive as well that we won the game mainly without the new signings, and we still have Moxey and brunt and Harley out.

 

[Sexton Blake]

Thought the first half dull as ditchwater with Newport by quite some margin the better side. However, for all their possession they didn't give Pym match to do. Second half we were much, much better with Holmes' goal a just reward for his and Reid's persistence.

Two things though: looked for all the world to be a second goal that was disallowed for presumably not crossing the line? Did anyone on the Bank or that end of the Shed get a better view? And what was with the restart being a drop ball on the edge of the box to the keeper? Why didn't we challenge it - the referee is not allowed to make it uncontested.

Secondly, just how good was Lloyd James today? I've been a fierce critic of his for some time now, but that was by far and away the best performance I've seen from him with him easily the best midfielder on show by some margin. I wonder if the arrival of Boateng has given him some sort of wake up call to ensure that he's not the one who'll be making way - can't see beyond Tillson for that, how he got MoM is beyond me, there were at least three or four players way ahead of Tillson today.

Ant agree with much of what you have said. The first 20 to 25 minutes of the first half was pretty dire although at times Reuben and Liam were linking up well. Once again Troy and JMT were immense with the former doing brilliantly to head a goal bound effort off the line. Although just as with Lee Holmes second half header goal line technology may will have seen it given as a goal.

There was no real supply coming through from midfield and neither Holmes or Taylor were really in the game. Midway through the half Tis made the same change as last Saturday with Holmes and Taylor switching wings and the whole game changed. Now we were starting playing some fluent football and Taylor had a rasping drive headed off the line. We were on top and I felt the halftime whistle came too soon for us.

Thankfully we started the second half in a similar fashion. Reuben's hold up and layoff play was excellent and Lee Holmes was on fire. His goal when it came was a brilliant solo effort picking up the ball on the right hand side edge of the penalty area running across the area and scoring with a beautiful curving shot into the far corner of the net with the Newport goalie clawing at thin air. We then had a spell camped either on the edge or in their penalty area resulting in a melee which saw Holmes latching on to a rebound on the edge of the six yard line directing a precision header towards an empty net only to see a Newport defender scramble back and keep the ball from going into the net by a combination of head and arm. Although from where we were sat in Block H it looked as it was over the line before he cleared it.

We continued to have most of the play with Reuben fashioning a very similar chance to that converted by Holmes only to see his shot curve inches wide of the far post but Newport still looked dangerous. It was due to an exceptional performance by our defence as a whole that we kept them out although they did hit the post with a shot from the edge of the area which beat Pym all ends up.

Like you Ant I have been a critic of Lloyd James but today he looked the part and must have come close to getting the MOM award. Tilson worked hard but missed an absolute sitter midway through the second half when running on to a sliderule perfect pass from Reuben totally unmarked and only needing to get the ball on target to put us two up but instead blasting over into the Big Bank.

The substitutions when they were made late on in the half came as no surprise and whilst I expected to see Stockley come on probably for Liam M I was surprised to see Reuben coming off. He had worked hard throughout and had always been a goal scoring threat and I felt that not withstanding Stockley goal scoring potential in taking off two strikers if Newport had equalised we would have struggled to regain the lead.

In summary the second half showed why we are top of the league a strong resilient defence, some good inventive forward play and as others have said we seem to have harder edge to our play than for a number of seasons.

 

[andrew p long]

yet again our starting line up entirely consisted of players who were with us last season

The E&E worked out that we were the only side out of the 92 who didn't have a debutant starting on the opening day of the season.If I've got it right,that run has now extended to the first 5 games of the season, when nobody else managed one game!


(and this is despite now having lost five players to clubs that finished above us last season - Watkins Wheeler Ampadu Grant and Stacey)