Saturday, December 31, 2005
A year of progress
My programme article from the game against Hereford Unit 30/12/2005
2005 has been a good year to be a City fan. There have been the usual ups and downs associated with supporting any team, but with a couple of extra special moments that have made it a year in which the club has moved forward, both on and off the pitch.
It all began, of course, with the wonderful trip to Old Trafford in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, that I wrote about last time, and the replay in front of the BBC cameras. Not only were these two extra special matches against Premiership opposition, we had the added bonus of watching them with the knowledge that they had helped secure our short term future by providing the money due under the CVA.
After the Cup matches we had a bit of a wobble in the league and despite our best efforts missed out on the playoffs by a single point. We’ve made a bit of a habit of missing out on things by a point: we were relegated from the football league by a point and we have missed out on the playoffs in our first two seasons in the Conference by a one point margin.
The summer saw the departure of a top-scorer Sean Devine to play for the New Zealand Knights in the newly formed A League. Devine’s team have won 1, drawn 1 and lost 13 matches this season and are currently 14 points adrift at the bottom of the league. Sean has scored 2 of the Knights’ 10 goals. Not the greatest of starts to the new league for the Knights.
Along with a couple of player departures, it was also announced over the summer that our playing budget would have to be cut. These two issues fuelled concerns about our ability to challenge for promotion. However, Alex Inglethorpe, while obviously not delighted by the cut in his budget, went about finding value for money in the transfer market and picked up a couple of players to fill the gaps left by those who had gone.
Despite the concerns about the budget and player departures, there did seem to be an unusually high level of optimism ahead of the new season: we had sold the highest number of season tickets for a number of years (over 1000). In my first article for the programme I said that this was for two reasons: because of the financial effects of the Manchester United money (people saw that the club had a future again) and because the fans were confident we had the right man as our manager.
I agreed that things were looking good, but mentioned the need for one of our strikers to step into Devine’s scoring boots. 3 players have taken up the challenge with new signings Jon Challinor and Craig Farrell battling it out with Lee Phillips to be the club’s top scorer. After an explosive start to the season, where we won our first 4 games, we’ve settled into a top five spot, well placed for the second half of the season.
Off the pitch, the CVA was finally concluded this month, with the certificate of completion being presented to the club at the FA Trophy match against Bishop’s Stortford by the CVA Supervisor. While 2005 will no doubt be remembered primarily for our FA Cup exploits, perhaps the most important moment of the year was that presentation on a cold Sunday afternoon in December in front of 1800 people. The certificate gives the community of Exeter and all Exeter City fans the chance to build a better future for ECFC and sets us up for what promises to be a bright 2006. Happy New Year!
2005 has been a good year to be a City fan. There have been the usual ups and downs associated with supporting any team, but with a couple of extra special moments that have made it a year in which the club has moved forward, both on and off the pitch.
It all began, of course, with the wonderful trip to Old Trafford in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, that I wrote about last time, and the replay in front of the BBC cameras. Not only were these two extra special matches against Premiership opposition, we had the added bonus of watching them with the knowledge that they had helped secure our short term future by providing the money due under the CVA.
After the Cup matches we had a bit of a wobble in the league and despite our best efforts missed out on the playoffs by a single point. We’ve made a bit of a habit of missing out on things by a point: we were relegated from the football league by a point and we have missed out on the playoffs in our first two seasons in the Conference by a one point margin.
The summer saw the departure of a top-scorer Sean Devine to play for the New Zealand Knights in the newly formed A League. Devine’s team have won 1, drawn 1 and lost 13 matches this season and are currently 14 points adrift at the bottom of the league. Sean has scored 2 of the Knights’ 10 goals. Not the greatest of starts to the new league for the Knights.
Along with a couple of player departures, it was also announced over the summer that our playing budget would have to be cut. These two issues fuelled concerns about our ability to challenge for promotion. However, Alex Inglethorpe, while obviously not delighted by the cut in his budget, went about finding value for money in the transfer market and picked up a couple of players to fill the gaps left by those who had gone.
Despite the concerns about the budget and player departures, there did seem to be an unusually high level of optimism ahead of the new season: we had sold the highest number of season tickets for a number of years (over 1000). In my first article for the programme I said that this was for two reasons: because of the financial effects of the Manchester United money (people saw that the club had a future again) and because the fans were confident we had the right man as our manager.
I agreed that things were looking good, but mentioned the need for one of our strikers to step into Devine’s scoring boots. 3 players have taken up the challenge with new signings Jon Challinor and Craig Farrell battling it out with Lee Phillips to be the club’s top scorer. After an explosive start to the season, where we won our first 4 games, we’ve settled into a top five spot, well placed for the second half of the season.
Off the pitch, the CVA was finally concluded this month, with the certificate of completion being presented to the club at the FA Trophy match against Bishop’s Stortford by the CVA Supervisor. While 2005 will no doubt be remembered primarily for our FA Cup exploits, perhaps the most important moment of the year was that presentation on a cold Sunday afternoon in December in front of 1800 people. The certificate gives the community of Exeter and all Exeter City fans the chance to build a better future for ECFC and sets us up for what promises to be a bright 2006. Happy New Year!
Monday, December 26, 2005
A Christmas Conundrum
My programme article from the game against Aldershot, 26/12/05
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas Day, that Father Christmas brought you all you wanted and that you didn’t have any unfortunate accidents with the oven leading to uncooked turkey’s and seriously delayed meals. For the next few hours you can forget about the clearing up and enjoy the company of a few thousand of your fellow City fans.
One of the first things I check when a new season’s fixtures are released is whether or not City have a home game on Boxing Day. There’s something special about going to the football feeling slightly worse for wear after a day of too much wine, turkey and cranberry sauce. When you’ve spent Christmas Day shut up indoors with the food and the family, playing Trivial Pursuit and watching whatever Christmas special was on BBC1, a City home game helps to blow away the cobwebs and helps you get over that all too familiar feeling that once again Christmas was an anti-climax.
A long running debate in my house about Christmas Day is: what is the best time to have the main meal? Should it be Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner? Health fanatics will insist that you must have Christmas lunch and then go for a walk afterwards to start burning off some of that excess food. (Actually, a true health fanatic would insist that the family only ate what they needed, rather than gorge themselves, but that’s not important right now.)
Certainly, a post-lunch walk on Christmas Day can be a great family event (depending on how much everyone has had to drink). However, a lunchtime meal means that some unfortunate person has to get up early to put the turkey on and generally start preparing the food. And inevitably, having eaten, tiredness sets in and you’re lucky to make it to 8pm before dropping off on the sofa.
Personally, I’m in favour of a late meal. This always seems to extend the day, giving plenty of time to open presents in the afternoon and for a few board games after dinner. Of course, the danger with leaving playing board games until so late in the day is that everyone has been drinking since at least the early afternoon and it’s quite likely a minor disagreement over who owns Park Lane, or whether that Trivial Pursuit answer is right, could turn into a major domestic incident.
After all the Christmas Day palaver, what better way to spend Boxing Day than at St James Park, watching City battle it out for promotion back into the league? It’s a great way to shake off those post-Christmas blues. Also, it helps build up your appetite for one of life’s greatest pleasures: cold turkey, bread sauce, and cranberry sauce sandwiches. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without one.
With Christmas coming to an end, a new year is fast approaching which inevitably means we have to start thinking about New Years Resolutions. I’ve only ever managed to keep one resolution for an entire year: I gave up chocolate. This had very little to do with will power, and very much to do with the fact my brother bet me £20 that I couldn’t do it. It’s amazing what you can do when there’s money involved. I’m not sure what I should give up this time around but there are a few days to go yet. I’ll have a bit of a think.
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas Day, that Father Christmas brought you all you wanted and that you didn’t have any unfortunate accidents with the oven leading to uncooked turkey’s and seriously delayed meals. For the next few hours you can forget about the clearing up and enjoy the company of a few thousand of your fellow City fans.
One of the first things I check when a new season’s fixtures are released is whether or not City have a home game on Boxing Day. There’s something special about going to the football feeling slightly worse for wear after a day of too much wine, turkey and cranberry sauce. When you’ve spent Christmas Day shut up indoors with the food and the family, playing Trivial Pursuit and watching whatever Christmas special was on BBC1, a City home game helps to blow away the cobwebs and helps you get over that all too familiar feeling that once again Christmas was an anti-climax.
A long running debate in my house about Christmas Day is: what is the best time to have the main meal? Should it be Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner? Health fanatics will insist that you must have Christmas lunch and then go for a walk afterwards to start burning off some of that excess food. (Actually, a true health fanatic would insist that the family only ate what they needed, rather than gorge themselves, but that’s not important right now.)
Certainly, a post-lunch walk on Christmas Day can be a great family event (depending on how much everyone has had to drink). However, a lunchtime meal means that some unfortunate person has to get up early to put the turkey on and generally start preparing the food. And inevitably, having eaten, tiredness sets in and you’re lucky to make it to 8pm before dropping off on the sofa.
Personally, I’m in favour of a late meal. This always seems to extend the day, giving plenty of time to open presents in the afternoon and for a few board games after dinner. Of course, the danger with leaving playing board games until so late in the day is that everyone has been drinking since at least the early afternoon and it’s quite likely a minor disagreement over who owns Park Lane, or whether that Trivial Pursuit answer is right, could turn into a major domestic incident.
After all the Christmas Day palaver, what better way to spend Boxing Day than at St James Park, watching City battle it out for promotion back into the league? It’s a great way to shake off those post-Christmas blues. Also, it helps build up your appetite for one of life’s greatest pleasures: cold turkey, bread sauce, and cranberry sauce sandwiches. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without one.
With Christmas coming to an end, a new year is fast approaching which inevitably means we have to start thinking about New Years Resolutions. I’ve only ever managed to keep one resolution for an entire year: I gave up chocolate. This had very little to do with will power, and very much to do with the fact my brother bet me £20 that I couldn’t do it. It’s amazing what you can do when there’s money involved. I’m not sure what I should give up this time around but there are a few days to go yet. I’ll have a bit of a think.
