Striker pleased to get off the mark for City
Exeter City’s latest addition Eliot Richards was pleased to grab his first goal in a City shirt, as he netted an 87th-minute winner away at Southend United.
It was a sublime bit of tricky on the left-hand byline from the forward that worked the opening, as he nutmegged Shrimpers defender Ryan Leonard, worked and angle and drilled past Darren Bentley at his near post.
Naturally the youngster was delighted to open his Grecians account and to help City to a victory by being the man to score the late winner.
The Bristol Rovers loanee now has six goals this season, as he added to his five with the Gas, and is and is hoping to contribute a few more before the end of the season to surpass the targets he set himself at the start of the year.
“We got off to a good start and got a goal ahead, and unfortunately went behind after two set-pieces,” said Eliot. “But we managed to get back and deserved the win.
“I think we created more chances than they did in the game – we didn’t put them away in the first half, but in the second half Liam scored a superb second goal and luckily got the winner just before the end.
“The ball came to my feet – I lined him up to take him on, and saw his legs were open. I put it through his legs, and Colesy was blocking the man at the front post so I cut back in and shot and got the goal.
“Hopefully I can get a few more goals – it was vital to get that first one, and hopefully there’s many more. At the start of the season I [set goal targets], but I didn’t count on going on loan. But hopefully I can get to that ten-goal mark and past that.”
The win also sees the Grecians going into a busy period at St James Park in good spirits – and Eliot is ambitious in his hopes for the coming games. Exeter host their rearranged game against Morecambe on Tuesday 18th February, before welcoming Rochdale next Saturday and Wycombe on the following Tuesday.
“Last week against Portsmouth we were dominate but didn’t get the goals to win the game, so hopefully now we can push on and get more wins,” Richards continued.
“It’s three games in front of our home fans now, and they’re winnable games I think. If we can win those, we’ll shoot up the table.”