Exeter City Season Review 2010/11: December

On to December. With no further involvement in the cup, Saturday 3rd was a day off for the players and the fans.

****

A trip up to London on Saturday 10th. The 678 City fans that travelled would have been reasonably content at half time, with the score being 0-0. However, a unique Troy hat-trick brought City’s 6 game unbeaten run to an end. First he conceded a penalty a bit harsh for a handball. Secondly, a really poor clearance let in Orient to make it 2-0. Finally, after beening beaten in the box he manhandled that player to the ground. The resulting penalty made it 3-0. The Western Morning News had this to say

Troy Archibald-Henville is unlikely to have rushed home to watch Saturday’s match highlights after he contributed to all three of the goals which earned Leyton Orient a 3-0 npower League One win.

Leyton Orient 3 City 0. Att: 4,291

****

The first game against Scunthorpe for a few seasons. Saturday 17th saw the Irons visit St James Park. City’s lack of firepower again evident with only 2 shots on target. Though Jake Taylor did put the ball on to the crossbar near the end. A poor game, a poor 0-0 to have witnessed.

The Grecians are struggling for goals right now and, once again, their lack of cutting edge in the final third prove their undoing as they were held to a frustrating goalless draw by Scunthorpe United. The experiment of playing Jake Taylor up front of his own, with skipper David Noble supporting “in the hole”, has drawn two blanks in the last two games.

City 0 Scunthorpe 0. Att: 4,470

****

Boxing Day saw a trip to Adams Park to play fellow strugglers Wycombe Wanderers. Fulham’s on loan Marcello Trotta would be the one to watch. And that is what it proved. Took him just 30 seconds to put Wanderers in to the ascendancy. Whilst Danny Coles headed equaliser (from Hackett corner), Wycombe still went in at half time with a 2-1 lead thanks to a 2nd Trotta goal. Exeter had the chance to get back in to the game, when 3 minutes after the restart Jake Taylor was hacked down by Nikki Bull. However, Guillem Bauza’s lame penalty was easily saved. Despite City dominating large parts of the 2nd half, Wycombe added a 3rd late on, to ensure the 502 Grecians had a miserable journey home.
Wycombe 3 City 1. Att: 4,904

****

The fixture list computer proving that it has a sense of humour, choosing the 500 mile round trip to Essex for the Grecians for New Year’s Eve. 142 City fans made the journey though. Colchester went in to this game on the back of a 6-1 thrashing by Stevenage on Boxing Day. Fans also hoping that we didn’t suffer at the hands of a red card happy referee. 1 goal in each half made sure the 3 points stayed in Essex, and to cap a bad day out, Danny Coles was shown red for a foul.

The familiar tale of Taylor going close to levelling proceedings continued immediately after the break – with the Reading loan signing seeing a deflected effort flying narrowly past the post. However, Taylor and the Grecians were made to pay for their wastefulness just after the hour mark when Bond – who turned in an impressive display all afternoon – made it 2-0.

Colchester 2 City 0. Att: 3,667

****

Just the 1 point from the 4 games in December. City finish the month in 19th. End of year report would say that the lack of fire power was seriously inhibiting the Grecians ability to move away from the relegation zone.

References for Quotes

Western Morning News match report for the Orient game.
WMN match report for Scunthorpe.
WMN match report for Wycombe.
WMN match report for Colchester.