Another poor home performance from County handed all three points to Exeter at a rain-filled Edgeley Park today.
Carl Baker was only fit enough to start on the bench, along with loanee Liam Bridcutt while Oli Johnson missed out.
Peter Thompson was stuck up front on his own. Oh great.
I’d love to expertly describe all the goings on in the first exciting 45 minutes at County today. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any.
A dull, uninspiring match between two poor teams was nothing to write home about, and County seemed quite content to make pretty passes around the defence and not really move past the halfway line.
Exeter took the lead three-quarters of the way through the first half, Ryan Harley curled in a free kick that bounced off the greasy surface and over fon Williams.
Peter Thompson had a chance to level it just before half-time as he was put through one-on-one with the keeper, but his first time half-volley was palmed away by Andy Marriot.
But nothing comes close to the second half in terms of the boring factor. It says something when the biggest cheer of the afternoon up until this point came when the linesman’s flag broke.
After 82 minutes of me sat in the Cheadle End with my hood up thinking about what’s for tea, County finally responded and in style.
A free-kick about 25 yards from goal was expertly curled in by County stalwart (!) Michael Rose, and Gary Ablett was jumping up and down on the sideline.
The fans finally got going, and we could have won it twice when first Danny Pilkington whipped in a dangerous ball and Michael Raynes somehow missed a free header from all of three yards out.
Then, Jamie Vincent fluffed his lines just inside the area in the last minute, the youngster turning his back on the ball and City broke.
A simple ball found it’s way to sub Adam Stansfield, who took three strides forward and slotted it past fon Williams. Heartbreak for County, but nothing less that we deserved.
Another sub, Richard Logan, sealed it in the dying minute of the match when he couldn’t miss from two yards out and rolled the ball home.
County slip to their fifth defeat in a row, and it was absolutely appalling today. No urgency, no quality about us, and no cutting edge. Unfortunately, I can see all these ingredients equalling League Two. Hopefully WITH Gary Ablett, who will show what he can do properly as a manager with no restrictions. Hopefully.
It’s saddening. Pre-administration, we would have sent these packing back to Exeter with a convincing home win under our belts. Because they were sh*t. And yet they were still better than us.
Accrington away next year anyone?
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Well, I really thought we would squeak 3 points albeit in a dire game. Now the writing is well and truely on the wall. We have to have a moral boosting win pdq or we risk being cut adrift by January. Clearly, without confidence we do not have the quality or quantity of players to stay up this season. Talk near me was of next seaon and whether we could stop the slide into…. nope, cant bring myself to mention the ‘C’ word.
This is crunch time. Small squad, injuries and suspensions beginning to bite, no money, confidence ebbing away, young inexperienced manager. As Kid C says above if we can keep within touching distance of 20th place by Jan we may be able to save oursleves. Have to say I would say its now more likely we will drop this season. One positive, despite the weather and everything else the gate of 4100 was better than I thought.