This weekend sees the Grecians looking to bounce back from two consecutive defeats as they face bottom of the table Stevenage at St James’ Park.
It is the second meeting in three weeks between the two sides after Matt Taylor’s side beat the Hertfordshire side 3-0 in the Leasing.com Trophy quarter final in January.
Craig Bratt looks back at a classic encounter between the two sides back in 2015, when the Sky Sports cameras descended on EX4 – and they weren’t disappointed
Exeter City 3-3 Stevenage
October 11, 2015
St James Park
The Grecians came into the game having had a mixed bag of previous results, having lost the Devon derby 2-0 five days earlier, but had picked up an impressive win away at Portsmouth a week before.
It was a blockbuster encounter at St James’ Park, with the first half seeing four goals and the game finely balanced before a late leveler the visitors. David Wheeler bagged a brace and Clinton Morrison turned on the flare, while it was Dean Parrett, Ben Kennedy and Chris Whelpdale on target for Stevenage.
The scoring got underway inside four minutes when Wheeler headed in an early opener from Lee Holmes’ piercing cross, but the goal of the day, and possibly of the season, came ten minutes later when City raced into a two-goal lead. It was Morrison who found the back of the net, getting up acrobatically to smash in an overhead kick to the delight of the home fans.
With six minutes left until half time, the away side found a way back into the game when Parrett struck a sweet free kick to peg the scores back to 2-1. Before the half was out, the game was, incredibly, level, as Kennedy rose highest to nod past Bobby Olejnik.
After a quieter second half, Exeter seemed to have won the contest ten minutes from time when Wheeler found his second goal of the afternoon when he latched onto David Noble’s diagonal ball, but there was to be late drama at SJP as Stevenage snatched a point in stoppage time. Whelpdale stepped up to conclude an action packed afternoon as he slotted home unmarked in the area after Brett Williams’ flick on.
Line-ups:
Exeter City: Olejnik, Ribeiro, Brown, Moore-Taylor, McAllister (Tillson), Holmes, Oakley (Davies), Noble, Wheeler, Morrison (Nichols), Grant.
Subs not used: Butterfield, Nicholls, Hamon, McCready
Stevenage: Day, Franks, Hughes, Well, Ogilvie, Parrett, Schumacher, Kennedy (Pett), Conlon (Williams), Whelpdale, Gnanduillet.
Subs not used: McCombe, Lumley, Hitchcock, Okimo, Loza.
Attendance: 3,235