Hapless 10 minutes sees Exeter well-beaten

Blackpool rocks City defence

A disastrous first half led to Exeter City being well-beaten at home to Blackpool.

The Grecians conceded three goals in just 10 minutes at the end of the first 45, thanks to some poor defending, both individually and as a team, and despite an improved second half just couldn’t turn it around.

Millenic Alli got one back late on, but it really was too little too late, and Exeter slipped to no wins in six in the league.

Blackpool should have been ahead a few minutes in, with Tom Bloxham shaving the outside of Exeter’s post. He had made the most of a bog-standard ball down the left-hand side, spinning Jack McMillan before cutting in and shooting with his right foot. City keeper Joe Whitworth was well beaten, and was lucky to see the ball skim the post as he dived speculatively to his right.

Shots from distance were a heavy feature of the opening stages, especially on Exeter’s part, with Jake Richards, Millenic Alli and Pat Jones all sending efforts high or wide from outside of the box. Josh Magennis had a much simpler chance to put City ahead, getting onto the end of a through ball, but his shot lacked precision and was blocked by the outstretched leg of Harry Tyrer in the Blackpool goal. 

Millenic Alli was Exeter’s most active attacker over the course of the first half, but was also prone to losing the ball, in particular to Blackpool left back Odel Offiah. On one such occasion Offiah brought the ball halfway up the pitch from his own penalty box, and within a couple of passes saw his side transform a promising counter attack into a one-on-one for CJ Hamilton, which he duly converted to put the visitors one up.

It is in no way unfair to describe what happened from there on as a capitulation on Exeter’s part. They were three goals down by half time, with both goals arising from defensive incompetence from isolated Exeter players. Their second goal saw the visitors new signing Tom Bloxham leave the aging Kevin MacDonald for dust before sitting Joe Whitworth down and smashing the ball home. 

An almost identical one-on-one situation was created almost immediately from the restart. This time it was fresh substitute Ryan Woods who was caught on his own with Bloxham, and embarrassed himself similarly, making an awfully timed lunging tackle which left himself on the floor and Bloxham bearing down on goal. He squared it to Ashley Fletcher, who only had to stroke the ball home to extend his sides impressive lead. 

As anyone might have expected, action was limited in the second half. The Grecians were perhaps surprised to discover that not every side will relinquish a three-nil half time lead as easily as Crawley Town did last month at St James Park.

Although Exeter did dominate the ball in the second forty five, peppering the Blackpool box with crosses, their defensive display appeared to be as convincing as their attacking one in the first half. 

The game seemed to be petering out, with chances for either side drying up, when Millenic Alli found some space in the penalty area and squeezed the ball home from a tight angle. This certainly put a bit more energy into Exeter’s game, and in fact new signing and debutant Tony Yogane was unlucky not to be awarded a penalty just minutes later.

But despite their improvement after half time (and it can’t be denied that there was one, despite the bar being set quite low) City just didn’t do enough to reverse the damage of their calamitous first half. They now run the risk of seeing their promising first half of the season slip into mid table mediocrity or even worse an unforeseen relegation battle.