Captain Bennett tips hat to giant-killing Warrington
Despite the huge disappointment of being knocked out the FA Cup to Warrington Town at Cantilever Park, Exeter City captain Scot Bennett acknowledged the hosts’ achievement in earning a place in the second round.It was a sixth-minute header from Craig Robinson that got the noses ahead for the Wire, and despite a second-half besiegement of the Warrington goal, Exeter were ultimately unable to put the ball over the line to force a replay.
Scot had an effort cleared off the line from a late towering header – just one of a number of goal-line clearances and heroic blocks that kept the City attack at bay.
And while he was hugely disappointed to be on the receiving end of the giant-killing and that the team couldn’t convert the chances, he recognised the hosts’ defensive solidity and achievement.
“I think we made the mistake of giving them something to hold onto,” said Scot. “We’ve tried everything to get back in the game – we had a few cleared off the line, the goalkeeper pulled off a few good saves.
“But we’ve got to give credit where credit’s due – they’ve probably edged it there and we’ve got to have a look at ourselves after that game.
“Warrington threw their bodies in front of everything. We had a few long-range shots where three or four threw themselves in front of it.
“We’re always happy to be creating chances, but we’ve got to put some away. We’ve created a lot of chances but we’ve not scored, and that’s a disappointing feeling.
“We were mainly in their half in the second half – and we had a lot of good chances too. We are always confident that we can get a goal; even when we’re 1-0 down we’re confident we can come back and win. Unfortunately it wasn’t our night.”
Another disappointment is still to come for City, when the draw for the second round is made on Monday evening – Warrington’s name will be in the hat, but Exeter’s will not.
The Grecians will be concentrating their efforts solely on Sky Bet League 2 now with all of the cup campaigns coming to an early end, but Scot wasn’t keenly anticipating the next draw and seeing other divisional rivals arranging big matches and potential giant-killings of their own.
“It’s another year when we’ve got to sit back and watch other teams go into the draw for the second round and maybe pull off big upsets like what’s happened here,” Bennett continued.
“It isn’t nice as a footballer to know that you could be in that draw but you’re not, and sat watching the draw on the TV while teams are getting matched up against some big clubs.”