Exeter City 4 Torquay United 3
United went down by the odd goal in seven in a drama packed match at St. James' Park. The Gulls almost produced an amazing comeback but were undone by Jamie Mackie who impressed for the home side.
A match that had nearly everything still cannot hide the obvious, that United were so far behind Exeter in the first half that even with a stirring second half effort from the team the damage had already been done. If you took a look at the match stats United would look the slightly better of the two teams but it goes nowhere near telling the whole story. The match started evenly but it was 15 minutes before a meaningful attempt at goal and had it gone in who knows how the match would have panned out. There will be controversy about the sending off (more of that later) but Exeter were lucky to keep eleven on the pitch after only six minutes when ex-Gull Steve Tully went in to a full blooded tackle against Lee Mansell but the referee deemed it a fair tackle and play went on.
Lee Phillips could not have done much more to try and open the scoring after 14 minutes when he latched on to a long Chris Hargreaves clearance and shoved Steve Tully out of the way before side stepping Jones to leave himself with a gaping goal at his mercy, credit must go to Seagrove for not giving up the chase and he blocked Lee's shot superbly and looking back it was a match changing moment. For some reason United's first half performance never got out of second gear and it was looking more likely that the home side were going to break the deadlock first. None of the goals that Torquay let in today will be pretty watching when the team review the match later on, Jamie Mackie is a forward in good enough form without making his job any easier but a quick ball from Basham opened up the space and Mackie carried the ball on into the United area before hitting a hard strike from 14 yards past Rice up in to the roof of the net.
It was a fair bet that the match would involve more than one goal but from a United point of view giving away Christmas gifts was not in the game plan. The second Exeter goal came from a corner which fell to Mackie, his shot was blocked but the ball fell to Moxhay who finished high into the net and give the Gulls a mountain to climb. The United players looked shell shocked and were struggling to get a foothold in the game but right at the end of the half Chris Hargreaves had a glancing header that slipped past the far post and although he didn't score it gave a small indication that the team weren't about to roll over and die. Two yellow cards didn't reflect the niggling attitude out on the pitch where there were plenty of polite looking comments about how peoples Christmas's were going and good wishes for the New Year! Paul Buckle had inspired his team at Oxford earlier this year from a similar position and another huge effort was needed again today.
United started the second half much brighter than they had the first, Kevin Nicholson tested Jones with a free-kick which the Exeter 'keeper couldn't hold but Seaborne managed to clear. From the resulting play a corner was curled over by Lee Mansell, the ball was knocked back inside the area by Chris Hargreaves and Chris Todd headed home inside the far post to start a possible come back. The joy didn't last long, yet again United handed their hosts a golden chance to increase their lead and they didn't waste it. Moxhay exchanged passes with Carlisle who ran on and headed home a short cross for a 3-1 lead. Two minutes later and more drama: a United corner was swung over and the ball fell to Tim Sills and Dan Seaborne at the far post, they tangled for the ball and after a minor and short scuffle the two players seemed to come 'face to face', Tim Sills went to ground and after consulting his linesman the referee showed Seaborne a red card much to the anger of the home players and supporters. Tim went off for treatment before returning to the action to a less than complimentary welcome from the City support. Against ten men every United supporter must have thought that the chance was there to bring themselves back in to the game but indecision was to cost United dearly just five minutes later. A ball over the top fell between Martin Rice and his centre backs, a moment's hesitation and Mackie had outpaced them all and slotted the ball home for City's fourth goal, unbelievable!
United now produced their best spell of the match, Danny Stevens had earlier replaced Ishmael Welsh and he looked bright out on the left wing. Twenty minutes to go and United gave themselves a lifeline, Lee Mansell showed some real fight to charge down two attempted clearances causing the ball to fall to Danny Stevens; he looked up and picked out Lee Phillips at the far post who headed the ball back across Jones for United's second goal of the day. Five minutes later and United were handed another opportunity to peg back the difference, a back pass from Edwards was picked by Jones and an indirect free-kick resulted. Kevin Nicholson has had a hand in many United goals this season and today he had his chance to get on the score sheet himself. The ball was knocked to him 13 yards out and he slammed the ball high into the roof of the net and send the travelling Gulls support wild. Even after a below par performance Torquay had enough chances in the last ten minutes to win two games let alone haul themselves back into this one. Stevens had a shot deflected wide for a corner, Tim Sills had a golden chance from the edge of the area that he slipped well wide and Chris Hargreaves had a header cleared off the line after he had beaten Jones. The last chance of the match fell to Danny Stevens but his shot was saved and cleared. Danny may well have played himself into the team for the Woking match and just about the only positive to take from today is the chance to put it right on New Years Day.
