Under-18s to presented with league title during half-time on Friday

Youngsters won the Youth Alliance South West division by seven points

Exeter City under-18s will be presented, by chairman Julian Tagg, with the Football League Youth Alliance South West division trophy at half-time during Friday's match with Barnet. 


City topped the table by seven points in Dan Green’s inaugural season as the under-18s coach. The young Grecians got off to a good start in the division with a 2-1 win against Yeovil Town, a 3-3 draw against Bristol Rovers and a 3-0 win against Swindon Town. All of these matches were played at hoome


With the building of the 3G pitch at the Cliff Hill training ground, the squad then had nine away games on the spin and although this began with a 4-0 win away at Bournemouth results dropped off in the middle of the league campaign.  


Having topped the table early on, they slipped behind Portsmouth and Newport County. However, the players responded with three wins in a row to finish the season in style.  


A 4-3 win in the Devon derby against Plymouth Argyle set up a vital game against title challengers Portsmouth, which City won 2-0 to knock Pompey out of the race. Then, with Newport losing elsewhere, Exeter were crowned champions. With the league title in the bag a 1-0 win against Oxford United in the final game showed the professionalism that Dan has instilled in his young players.


The under-18s are now competing in Merit League 1 where the top teams from the South West merge with the top teams from the South East for the second half of the season.  


Exeter have done well so far, winning three and drawing two of their games so far. There are two matches remaining, home games against Bristol Rovers and Newport, and City will hope to finish the season strongly.


The under-18s squad is as follows: 

Lewis Williams

Alex Hartridge

Max Gillard

Sam Haynes

Joe O’Loughlin

Josh Hancock

Max Smallcombe 

Mitch Thomas

Joel Randall

Harry Kite

Josh Key

Archie Collins

Ben Seymour

Cameron Hargreaves

Brandon Parsons

Lucas White

Ethan Ampadu

Jack Sparkes