Exeter City’s match against Mansfield Town on Saturday, March 30, is our club’s designated One Game, One Community match.
To mark the day, the club will be celebrating the positive impact women and girls have on football at our club by hosting a day dedicated to them.
Emilie Sewell has been supporting City since she was four years old. Read about their experiences following the Grecians below:
My first experience at SJP was when I was four years old in 1993. Dad brought me along and we stood in what was then the Cowshed. I think in all honesty he wanted a son who he could bring along to the match, but instead he got me, and 25 years later we still go together, every home game on the Big Bank
My first Favourite player was Darren Rowbotham and over the years there have been many more, Jon Challinor, Craig Farrell and Matt Oakley to name a few.
For me City has been a constant over the past 25 years, I’ve celebrated every high and I’ve felt every low. I’ve been to Wembley four times, Old Trafford in 2005 and Anfield in 2016 as well as places like Morecambe, Cambridge and York, travelling for hours to watch my beloved team.
One of my best memories is Torquay away in the 2008 play-offs where we came from behind to win 4-2 (a certain Matt Taylor played in that game I seem to remember) or the play off semi-final at Oxford in 2007 where we won on penalties.
When I was 16, I spent a week at the club for my work experience, it was a great week and I got to work in the offices as well as spending time with Claire (the then physio) at the training ground – giving me my first view of what it’s like to be a female working in a male-dominated industry. That was when I first realised quite how special our club is. We can be a part of it, get involved and get up close and personal to the team and management which in leagues above ours is unheard of.
Ever since that week I have tried to be as involved as I possibly can with the club, regular season ticket holder and Trust member as well as corporate Trust member through the business I work for. A couple years back I frequently helped my good friend Jenny Lees who cooks for the team at the training ground during the week. I met Jenny after my dad introduced me to her through them meeting on the Brazil centenary trip in 2014. Jenny is an amazing lady who is dedicated to her club and looking after the boys, she will do anything to help and she inspires me to do as much as I can to keep this club ours.
Through helping at the Cliff Hill, I was able to chat to everyone,it amazed me always how down to earth and friendly they all were, and it didn’t faze them to have a younger person let alone a girl at the training ground. I later met kit lady Lou (Pring) and Jess (Preece) one of our physios and realised there was a healthy mix of females at this club that were excelling in their environment. This is bounds ahead of where we were when I did my work experience more than 10 years before.
For me ECFC has been something I share with some of the closest people to me, I have made new friends, lifelong friends and gained plenty of opportunities and experiences. Here’s to another 25 years and involving more and more females at ECFC. #BalanceforBetter