City man on the striker's role
Scot Bennett has had a few people in the press box scratching their head recently on how best to label him.
It’s hard to convince yourself to write a line like ‘centre-forward Scot Bennett swivelled and wrong-footed Luke McCormick with a match-sealing strike’ when you know that Scot himself wouldn’t even describe himself as a forward (despite him being a striker in form, with four goals in his last four games).
But, as it transpires, it was after playing as a striker that Scot Bennett was first snapped up by Exeter City. On trial with the club as 12-year-old, the Newquay-born man (there’s another one) sealed the deal by convincing the Grecians he was worth taking on.
“I didn’t really ever see myself playing as a centre-forward,” says Scot. “I’ve only ever played there once as a youngster, which was on a trial game for Exeter – they liked me, and that was the game they signed me up from! But then I went back to my rightful position as a centre-back.
“I was up front in the first half, and then dropped into centre-midfield in the second half which is when I got a goal.
“I was an under-13 at the time, and we were playing against Bournemouth. Mel Gwinnett – who’s the goalkeeper coach now – was manager of that age-group at the time, and he obviously liked what I did in that game and signed me up.”
The full interview with Scot Bennett is in Saturday’s issue of The Grecian, our matchday programme, which will be on sale around the ground at St James Park ahead of the Hartlepool United fixture.