Saturday
31st October 1998

Exeter City
Bayes
Gardner (Fry 83)
Power
Baddeley
Richardson
Gittens
McConnell
Rees
Flack
Curran (Holloway 88)
Breslan

Sub not used
Gale

Report from Dean Hurley.

An average performance by the City yesterday who never looked like scoring
but probably just shaded the game. Exeter were a poor side and you can see
why they have gone a year without an away win but I thought Lee Baderely
was Excellent for them and its makes you wonder why City sold him. I also
thought ex City player Jimmy Gardner played quite well and put in some
dangerous crosses on times and looked a far better player than when he was
with us. As for the City performance I thought the defence looked solid
enough and never rarely got troubled but its up front where we have the
problem, we just dont look like scoring goals and yesterday I thought the
game was destined the finish 0-0. It must be time to drop Thomas now as
once again yesterday he did nothing and have you noticed now that when he's
substituted the applause for him when he walks off are getting less and
less. Nugent yesterday was slightly below his best but Frank really needs
to find a partner for him. Nugent has never been a prolific goalscorer as
he is a target man whose job is to hold the ball up and bring other players
into the game. Christian Roberts looked bright when he came on and did more
in 20 minutes than Thomas did in 70 minutes. His run and cross for
Middleton's goal was superb and maybe it's time to give him a run in the
side. Middleton took his goal well but what impressed me most about the
game was the performance of Chris Allen. He looks a cracking player who has
alot of pace is strong and frequently gets to the by-line and puts quality
balls into the box. After seeing his performance yesterday id say he is a
much better player than Brazier and would be well worth buying if Forest
would let him go. Delaney I thought was poor yesterday, some of his
crossing on times is terrible and he got caught out of position far to many
times again yesterday. Overall an average performance but 3 much needed
points.

Report from NigelBlues.

The usual story of good and bad news. City played very well defensively
restricting Exeter to 2 chances all match. The midfield were dominant and
some great football was played at times, especially given the conditions.
However it was often over elaborate and rarely direct with many players
seeming scared to shoot. Up front, Kevin Nugent lead the line well but attack
still have no cutting edge and Dai Thomas yet again showed he is not the
answer. Best player was an on-loan signing and we scraped a narrow victory in
a game when possession showed have dictated a easy and comfortable win. Every game it's the same but how can we complain greatly if we win?
The conditions in Cardiff were appalling and Cardiff rugby were called off
early in the morning. I picked up my nephew from Rhoose and had to drive
through 1 to 2 foot of water through disappearing roads that were deluged and
up to 5 feet deep in places. A small duck pond had suddenly become a 1/2 mile
lake. Where the bloody hell is Noah when you need him Rev Joe?
It is therefore to the credit of the groundsmen that the match took place at
all. The pitch was in fantastic condition and even though they were splashes
as players ran, the surface played well and hardly cut up all match. Wayne
Nash the groundsman is an unsung hero at City and so were the crowd. I
thought it would be 3,000 or so but to pull in 5,441 was magnificent too in
that weather. It was easily the best crowd in the division.
Exeter brought their Cardiff City reserve side to Ninian including Jimmy
Gardiner, Lee Baddeley who still gives it 110% (someone put a Welcome Backs to Ninian Badders sign to the Bob Bank - nice touch), Steve Flack  and Chris Fry on the subs bench. A couple other players were from Cardiff area although never
involved at City.
City started well and Chris Allen soon had us saying Matt who? He is not as
skilful as Matt Brazier but easily too good for this level and has tremendous
pace and good crossing abilities too. Jason Fowler linked up with him and hit
some phenenomal Lee Jarman-type passing to find him several times in the half.
A dimension to his game that I never realised he had before.
City's first chance after about 10 minutes was from such a set up. A far post
cross was headed back by Kevin Nugent but Dai Thomas forgot to jump high and
challenge the Exeter keeper. Exeter were very withdrawn as City pushed on
with Carpenter having another good game even if his passing wasn't always too
clever.
Other chances were another Nugent header which was saved by Bayes who must have felt he was in Cardiff Bay(es) with the rain in his face. The Exeter
fans on the open Grange End must have been happy to jump back in the
cars/busses. They were out of sight seconds after the final whistle. Dai
Thomas and Lee Baddeley had a confrontation which ended with Badders on the
ground but nop bookings and then a goal.
A whipped Richard Carpenter was met by Kevin Nugent who firmly headed
downwards and into the corner past a depairing dive. It looked a good goal
but was disallowed, presumably for pushing but nothing I noticed.
Surprise, surprise - the refeering was poor at times. Will we ever get a
decent one again? This time it was Steve Baines an ex-professional player too
- so much for the theory that they make for better referees. He seemd to
allow for the conditions in the first-half but forgot in the second half as he
booked 4 or 5 City players and a couple from Exeter for challenges he allowed
to go earlier in the game.
Shortly afterwards Bayes was in trouble again as his defender sliced a tackle
high into the air. It was heading back to goal and could not have been
construed as a deliberate back pass but Bayes, perhaps getting used to the
water, decided he was Viz character, Billy The Fish. Forgetting he had hands,
he decided to leap into the air and head the ball off his goal-line. Shame it
didn't skin in but a touch of comedy by the goal-kipper.

Half-time City 0 Exeter 0

Second-half started with a surprise. No Jason Fowler. Can't remember him
being in trouble first-half but guss his ankle played up again so City started
with Craig Middleton.
Exeter were first to attack when ex-Bluebird Lee Baddeley met a free-kick
which flicked the top of the crossbar.
City continued to be dominant but did not really hurt the Exeter defence and
had few efforts. Allen seemed more withdrawn without Fowler on the left and
Delaney hit some poor, sometimes awful crosses, on the right after good runs
and movement to get into postion. Nugent was still playing well but Dai
Thomas was anonymous.
In a rare move into the area, Allen hit a good shot which was saved after
being played in by another good Nugent header. Some spice got into the game
as the donkey a.k.a. Steve Flack took out Jeff Eckhardt for a booking. Maybe
it's a sign of team spirit that he got whacked a few minutes later by
Christian Roberts and Richard Carpenter for booking within seconds of each
other although the conditions seemed to play a part (as did the Exeter physio
who ran on the pitch to calm Flack and clearly tell him to lie down after one
of the tackles).
Christian Roberts replaced the ever disappointing Dai Thomas and showed more
in half-hour than Dai has in a most games at Ninian. Perhaps Roberts form is
at last coming back and he can soon get a regular start as this cannot
continue for longer.
Within seconds, Roberts hit a decent shot. He ran into positions, was lively,
showed pace and worked well with Nugent. Shortly afterwards, John Williams
was introduced to my accompaniment of "John Williams is a Super City Sub" - it
was a solo version! But within 5 minutes, City scored an excellent goal
involving all three substitutes.
On 76 minutes, a ball played from half way was stepped over by John Williams
(is a Super City Sub) allowing Chris Roberts to receive it near the touchline
level with the penalty area. He worked inwards before playing a low cross
into the area. It was met by Craig Middleton who slide rule touch passed the
ball back across goal and into the far corner was 15 yards. An exemplary
finish as most would have snatched or blasted at it. I think it is is first
City league goal for 2 seasons also so he owed us one.
There was little action afterwards as City comfortably played out although
Roberts again came close with a good run and sanp shot which was saved. It is
a major worry that City have scored just 1 goal in their last 3 league games
and the table shows how many fewer we have scored than other top sides. We
have also played more home games than others - 9 homes and 6 aways - so need to continue getting good away results.