FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.29: FA CUP ROUND 3 EXETER AWAY

Article by Paul Beasley Monday, January 13th, 2025  

FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.29: FA CUP ROUND 3 EXETER AWAY

EXETER CITY 3 OXFORD UNITED 1

I don’t think there’s any question that overall the FA Cup is not what it was. It may be the second most prestigious competition we play in but its status has declined massively with the ever growing financial dominance of the Premier League. The focus too of most Championship teams will first and foremost be on either automatic promotion, getting into the play-offs or avoiding the drop. This competition will be very much secondary.

That said there is still some magic around. A non-league minnow hosting or even beating a giant from the Premier League or elsewhere from the 92. It’s all perspective. That visit to a massive venue when the capacity of your home ground is only a few thousand. Mostly though the seemingly inevitable happens. The same can be said of teams in L2 going away to those at the very top of the game. Manchester City 8 Salford City 0. Chelsea 5 Morecambe 0. Liverpool 4 Accrington 0. No contest, not a goal scored, but they had their “big day out”.

Some get so much closer before failing but come out of it all with great credit. Bromley at Newcastle and Tamworth hosting and taking Spurs to extra time.

For smaller clubs the prize money can be a godsend and also not to be sniffed at by a club of our size so there is an incentive. We got £25k for losing at St James Park. The winners bagged £115k. Fourth round winners will get £120k, fifth round winners £225k and those who triumph in the quarter finals £450k. Then there’s TV income and potential to share the gate money from a place like Old Trafford.

As we’re now a Championship club we didn’t have to join in until the third round for the first time since 1998/99. Not that any neutral watching would have thought we were a Championship outfit. We made a real hash at trying to negotiate the first hurdle.

Naturally there’s a certain amount of disappointment in going out but for me not as much as if it had been league points we’d so ineptly thrown away. The big worry is that there were a number of players here given the opportunity to show that they should be challenging for a place in the first XI for league games and they didn’t step up. The concern that there is a lack of depth in the squad returned. Gary Rowett has done extremely well in the short time since he came through the door. So far it has looked like when he picks his best team from those available we’re hard to beat and have a backbone that had previously disappeared.

If this showing had to be categorised along with others this season it would belong in the filing cabinet drawer containing those in the run of one win in 16 we had under Des Buckingham, not the one holding Gary Rowett’s four league games.

We’ve missed out on the fourth round. It’s Exeter not us at home to arguably the team of the season, Nottingham Forest. Burnley will be visiting Southampton in that round which means we won’t be visiting Turf Moor on Saturday 8th Feb.

The way the game started there was no hint of what was to come. We took the lead in the 14th minute with an incisive move from one end of the pitch to the other. It looked easy. There was no reason to think there wouldn’t be more and a comfortable victory would follow. We had the better players and were playing the better football against a team from the tier below.

Siriki Dembele got possession just outside our area and brought the ball out. When he got close to the half-way line he fed Dane Scarlett down the right. The loanee from Tottenham played a first time pass which the retreating defenders were not able to catch up with and cut out. Matt Phillips arrived at the far post and clinically side-footed home.

Eight minutes later it was all square and from then on we were second best. Vincent Harper was given all the time in the world to get a cross in from our right. No-one was marking the scorer, Demetri Mitchell, who connected on the volley hitting the ball into the ground and past Matt Ingram on the bounce. Poor defending all round and I would have expected a Championship keeper to have done better.

We needed to show resilience, dig deep and not allow the Grecians to get up a head of steam. We didn’t nor did we show any notable attacking prowess.

The hosts’ second arrived from the other flank on 40 minutes. Idris El Mizouni didn’t do enough to prevent a cross coming in and when it did Hidde ter Avest, whilst winning the ball, just knocked it obligingly to Mitchell who hit it first time past the static Ingram. More poor defending. Defend like that and a team deserves to lose football matches.  

Dembele was our man most likely to create something. In the second half with the score still at 2-1 he went on a run and set Scarlett up. His shot went just wide but we weren’t really threatening with much purpose.

In the 64th minute we brought on Tyler Goodrham for Josh McEachran and Alex Matos for El Mizouni and immediately let in a third. Exeter ran through the centre of the park and Harper was allowed to get his shot away across Ingram. Again the defending all-round left a lot to be desired.

It could have got worse in terms of the score line but it didn’t. Where it did get worse was Goodrham’s dismissal. At the time it was difficult to see what had happened. The pulling was blatant and the perpetrator, 17 year old Jake Richards, rightly got a yellow card. Violent conduct from Tyler? Or just a natural reaction to try and shrug off a cheat with no intent? This can be interpreted in so many ways.

Referee Scott Oldham seemed slow to blow but will have been waiting to see if we would have been disadvantaged by being given the free-kick. Turns out we could be massively disadvantaged. A three game ban for that is ludicrous but the law is an ass. If we do appeal I can’t see it being overturned. That’s not usually what happens. The referee’s decision is final and all that sort of stuff.

I left the ground being rather impressed with Exeter although having had time to reflect we hardly gave them a test so a big caveat there. I’d also thought they were higher up the league than they are and when walking back to the car said to my mate “they should just forget about the FA Cup and concentrate on trying to get into the play-offs”. Someone in a non-Devon accent said “Who’s they?” “Exeter I said. I thought they were pretty good and thoroughly deserved the win”. He was wearing an Exeter City hat. “Where are you from?” he asked. “Bicester” to which he replied “I live in Brackley, I used to live in Bicester”. We arrived at our car at this point so I didn’t have the chance to ask why he was an Exeter fan. He did though have time to tell us the quickest route away from the ground. Good advice as we were home in good time.

Both journeys were trouble free meaning I’d been dropped off near the Port Royal on the Quay at 11:15. It doesn’t open until mid-day but one coffee later I had a pint in hand looking out over the river. Good beer. Next a short walk to the Hour Glass where friends had gathered before moving on to the city centre and the Ship where memories of last year’s triumphant visit came flooding back.

The question now is will this defeat have had an effect on morale and confidence in the camp? On Tuesday night we’re back in Devon for that re-arranged league game against bottom club Argyle. On Saturday their FA Cup experience was the total opposite of ours, winning 1-0 at Premier League Brentford. That and the subsequent draw for the fourth round which brings the mighty Liverpool to Home Park will have given them the largest of boosts. The place will be rocking. Not that they need any extra incentive but they won’t want to lose to a team their local rivals have just turned over. Throw in the fact that they’ve no longer got the millstone of Wayne Rooney dragging them down and I can see why Argyle are the bookies favourites. We’ve really got our work cut out.

We will of course have a different team out. If we don’t I’d already just about write our chances off.

Jamie Cumming will be back between the sticks. Ingram looked very rusty.

Ciaron Brown, who remained on the bench, will strengthen the defence. Will Vaulks and Ruben Rodrigues were also unused substitutes. It is a worry though that Elliott Moore is likely to be out for a few weeks. I was expecting to see the recalled Stephan Negru feature at Exeter but it seems we’ve recalled him to send him out somewhere other than Salford. If he’d played he couldn’t have gone anywhere else other than back to Robbo. Are the club looking to bring in another centre-half as a long awaited replacement for Ben Nelson? Or are they happy with what we have in the building? Sam Long alongside Brown until Moore returns with Jordan Thorniley as back up.

Peter Kioso came on in the 70th minute and he’ll be starting at right back I would think. With Brown in the centre there are no real options at left-back unless Joe Bennett has quietly got back to fitness and we’re about to re-register him. Meanwhile it’s Greg Leigh who doesn’t look a natural there at Championship level. He perhaps doesn’t get enough help from team-mates though, both when defending and when bringing the ball forward.

Having Cameron Brannagan and Vaulks as a two in front of the back four has been a major part of our league improvement under GR. At Exeter neither played. It just wasn’t the same. Brannagan has an injury which isn’t too serious but I suspect he may not be risked at Plymouth. Vaulks will be back though. Who alongside him if indeed we play the same formation? Alex Matos? We got to see 20 plus minutes of him. Bloody hell, he looks like a player who is going to get stuck in. More of a box to box type who will tackle anything that moves.

Przemyslaw Placheta came on at the same time. Playing like he did he’s a player who gives fans optimism. Soon we hope he’ll be feeding OIe Romeny but we’ll have to wait a short while for the man we’ve signed from Utrecht to get up to match fitness. Meanwhile we need Mark Harris back for the shifts he puts in but he’s another who may not be risked for a game or two.

And Dembele will only get better won’t he?

There that will do, I’ve talked myself into a much more positive frame of mind than I was in on Saturday night.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 13th, 2025 at 8:28 pm and appears under News Items.

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