Honours even in a balanced display.
Exeter City and AFC Bournemouth’s reserve sides played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Cat & Fiddle this afternoon.Both sides fielded a blend of youth and experience, which made for a lively encounter. In particular Wes Thomas looked busy in the Cherries’ front line, and fizzed a low shot that Rhys Evans did well to turn over the crossbar in the opening stages.
Guillem Bauza was alert to open the scoring for the Grecians, when he looked to have spurned an initial chance, but he followed up to slot in from a narrow angle.
The Spaniard had a chance to double the lead after jinking through the Bournemouth defence, but his powerful effort took a deflection as it flew over.
Irishman Jimmy Keohane also fashioned a chance for himself by cutting in from the left flank, and his right-footed strike rose just over the crossbar.
Thomas was then slipped in for Bournemouth and equalised with a cool strike beyond the reach of Evans.
Substitute Jamie Reid might have earned a win for the home side when he escaped down the right flank, but his effort rebounded wide off the post from near the byline.
City's assistant manager Rob Edwards said: "They all impressed me today. I thought we had a really good performance against a lot of older players from Bournemouth.
"I thought our lads were excellent. There had a lot of attributes and a lot of skill to give them a tough game. I think Bournemouth were probably lucky to get a draw in the end."
Exeter City starting XI: Evans; Amankwaah, Moore-Taylor, Knowles, Wannell; Cane, Doherty, Keohane; Nichols, Bauza, Chamberlain.
AFC Bournemouth starting XI: Tierney; Cargill, Zubar, Partington, Fogden; Molesley, O'Kane, Davids, McDermott; Thomas, Demouge.