Exeter City v Rovers.3rd Tier Match Thread, 1st October,2022

Stats: Exeter City 2 BRFC 2 - 57% - 43% - Shots 10-9 - On Target 4-4 - Corners 6-3 - Fouls 11-15 - Yellows 2-2 - Referee: Declan Bourne - Attendance: 7,816 (away 1,232)

A late equaliser from Ryan Loft secured a point for Rovers in a game which saw four second-half goals.

Joey Barton made four changes to the side that took to the pitch against Accrington Stanley. Antony Evans, John Marquis, Jordan Rossiter and Luca Hoole were all recalled to the starting line-up in the place of Paul Coutts, Alfie Kilgour, Trevor Clarke and Harry Anderson.

The first effort at goal in the tie fell to Rovers. Aaron Collins picked the ball up inside the Exeter half and drove towards goal. As the Exeter defenders backed off the Rovers forward, options opened up for Aaron. John Marquis had pulled away from his marker but Aaron opted for the shot, which was hit well but zipped past the far post of former Rovers goalkeeper Jamal Blackman's goal.

The first half offered little in the way of other goalscoring opportunities with neither 'keeper being called into action. The sides exited the field at half time with the scores level.

Exeter started the second half strongly. A flurry of chances caused concern for Belshaw and the Rovers no.1 was relieved to see Stansfield's effort crucially deflected away from his goal.

Rovers took the lead just past the hour mark. Ryan Loft did well to pick out Aaron Collins, who clipped the ball towards the back post where Marquis was Johnny(Marquis)-on-the-spot to smash the ball into the back of the net to send the 1,200 Gasheads behind the goal crazy.

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Exeter was awarded a controversial penalty with 20 minutes left to play. Antony Evans was adjudged to have pulled Jack Sparkes to the ground and referee Bourne was quick to point to the spot. Jevani Brown made no mistake with his spot kick, going hard and low to Belshaw's left to level the scores.

Exeter took the lead just past the 80-minute mark. A Rovers free-kick was cut out by the hosts and sent upfield where, after a communication mix-up, saw the ball bounce over Belshaw's head and left Sam Nombe with an empty net to tap into.

Rovers refused to lie down though. Joey Barton introduced Sylvester Jasper for Luke McCormick as the game's final stages drew closer. It proved to be an inspired substitution when the winger sent the ball into the box as the clock ticked to 93 minutes and Ryan Loft was on hand to head home the equaliser to secure a point for Rovers in Devon.

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EXETER CITY: Blackman, Caprice, Key, Sweeney, Hartridge, Sparkes, Harper, Collins, J.Brown, Nombe, Stansfield.

Subs: S.Brown, Borges, Chauke, Jay, Smith, Cox

BRISTOL ROVERS: Belshaw, Hoole, Thomas, Gordon, Finley (c), Marquis, Collins, Loft, McCormick, Evans, Rossiter.

Subs: Jaakkola, Whelan, Kilgour, Saunders, Coutts, Jasper, Clarke.

You say he is no John Charles, i would go with he is no Archie Stephens, i have not seen a player rise and stay so long in the air as Archie did.

Archie scored 40 goals in the Quarters of Rovers, i wonder how many were headers.

A very good day for Lofty Bath.

👍

As someone walking out said "we scored all the goals." In a way.

A point is more than acceptable at Exeter, just a pity we gifted them both of their goals.

Blue Skies and late Autumn sunshine in Devon provided a pleasant setting for a keenly contested encounter between 2 sides attempting to play some decent football, yet ready to compete for every ball.

As the game was reaching the final throws the skies darkened and a light shower of rain fell on St James's Park and suddenly it felt as if Christmas had come early. Exeter were handed Gas wrapped gifts of goals, persisting with a Christmas theme Rovers bagged a couple of crackers to earn a deserved point.

In my first away trip since Bolton in January 2020 the Gas served up the best performance I have witnessed this season.

My 3 Kings would be Rossiter, Finley & Gordon - Lewis and Mac worked well together down the left in both attack and defence.

At present it's either Evans or Belshaw to be Santa at the Christmas Party.

If JB can build upon this performance from the team there could plenty to cheer come December.

Winning the ball back that eventually led to our equaliser.

Did Jordan Rossitter make a one of those 'tackle-passers' I mentioned he likes to do?

A one touch tackle and the ball is also passed to one of his team mates.

I think it happened, but I do know if it was on purpose this time.

I think an excellent player.

Are his coaching staff following or is Wayne Carlisle in the running for the Grecians job?

According to the Exe web forum Carlisle doesn’t want the Exeter job and will likely follow Matt Taylor to Rotherham. Exeter about to lose most of their coaching staff according to the forum, if correct.

UTG!

edit: beat me to it BG. 😉