City lose at home again

Kyle Wooton brace gives Stockport win over sorry Exeter

Exeter City suffered a poor defeat at home to promotion chasing Stockport, in what may have been the lowest quality performance of a season which has been charecterised by several underwhelming home defeats like todays. Kyle Wooton scored two tap ins in the first twenty minutes to give Stockport a comfortable lead, which frankly never looked likely to disappear.

The packed out away end was in full voice as City failed to lay a glove on their visitors, whose promotion ambitions seem a distant dream for this Exeter side. 

The visitors managed to reward their impressive away following for their enthusiastic support within little more than a minute. A brilliantly direct and energetic forward run from Stockport’s Carl Fevrier took a sluggish Exeter defence by surprise, and he found some room for Isaac Olaofe to put a low cross into the six-yard box. The ensuing goal mouth scramble was taken advantage of by Wooton, who was able to knock the ball past City keeper Joe Whitworth.

City did grow into the game after this initial shock, to the extent of having a little possession in the Stockport half, and even the occasional shot. But a distinct and familiar lack of quality combined with the usual stubborn determination to play the ball out from the back hampered their efforts, and they let their visitors double their lead in a similar fashion on twenty minutes.

Another Olaofe cross (this time from the left, where a huge gap had materialised in the City defence) was met again by Wooton, who had the freedom of the six-yard box to pass the ball high into Whitworths net, doubling his sides advantage. 

Having taken a comfortable lead, the visitors’ energy died down somewhat (although the same cannot be said of their fans), and they seemed happy to slow the pace of the game down and contain Exeter offensively. The Grecians seemed truly incapable of putting together any coherent attacking moves, with Caleb Watts the only player who stood out at all. The halftime whistle was met with booing from the home stands. 

For a match which had begun so entertainingly, almost nothing of note happened during the second forty-five. The visitors were happier and happier to sit back as full time approached, and despite some promising build-up play in front of Stockport’s low-lying defence, City consistently failed to execute the final pass. There were too many poor errors, too many overhit through balls for there to be any real chance of the game being turned on its head.  

Sonny Cox did find himself in on goal at one stage, but passed up the chance to square the ball to the onrushing Josh Magennis and instead saw his shot blocked by a combination of two Stockport defenders. 

The visitors did have a couple of half chances to well and truly kill the game, mostly thanks to mistakes at the back from Exeter, but Joe Whitworth made a handful of routine saves to just about keep his side in it. Eight minutes were added on to the 90, mainly thanks to lengthy injuries to Exeter’s Pat Jones and Ed Turns, but Stockport saw the game through to claim all three points. This defeat keeps City a little too close for comfort to the bottom four, giving them something to worry about as we approach the business-end of the season.