City draw at home to Lincoln

Match Report: Exeter City 0-0 Lincoln City

Exeter City settled for a point at home in a low quality 0-0 draw against fellow promotion-hopefuls Lincoln. Although Exeter were on top for much of the first half, they failed to capitalise, and the same could be said for the visitors who had the better of the second forty-five. Any hopes of Exeter grabbing a late winner went out the window when midfielder Ryan Woods was sent off for a second yellow card with only stoppage time to go.
 
With attacking assets Ilmari Niskanen and Josh Magennis out on international duty for Finland and Northern Ireland respectively, a patchwork front three of Alli, Watts and Aitchson led the line for City. The change showed, and they were naïve and wasteful in front of goal throughout the match, but most noticeably during their sustained periods of dominance in the first half.
 
Jack Aitchson got on the end of a through ball and in on goal, but, perhaps not backing his pace and strength against the Lincoln defenders catching up to him, he checked back and sent a tame shot straight at Wickens in the Lincoln goal. Caleb Watts did well to tee up Ryan Woods with a neat pass on the edge of the box, but, in keeping with his goal scoring record of one in seven years, Woods could only blast it high and wide of the near post.
 
Where Exeter failed to make free kicks and corners count (often failing to get the ball into the box at all) Lincoln nearly scored from one of their very first set pieces. A ball swung in by midfielder Dom Jeffries took a light deflection towards goal. It was only kept out by the extraordinary athleticism of City keeper Joe Whitworth, who dived to his left to claw the ball away.
 
The second half was just as scrappy as the first.  The only change was that Lincoln were firmly in the ascendancy as the half went on. Striker Ben House had two great chances to put the Imps a goal up, the first a header to meet a firm cross which he put just wide, and the second a half volley which he had created with a lovely touch that sent Exeter’s Tristan Crama out of the way. The resulting shot should have been put low into the corner and out of Whitworth’s reach, but it was instead sent straight into the goalkeeper’s midriff. Jovon Makama had a chance to win it late on, finding himself as the spare man in front of goal after a break forward. He opted for the aesthetically pleasing curling shot into the top left-hand corner, only to see it loop just wide of the angle between post and bar.  
 
Though many would have expected late drama to come in the form of a winning goal, it instead manifested itself as a brace of almost comical red cards for Exeter. The first was assistant manager David Perkins, who withheld the ball from a Lincoln player wanting to take a quick throw-in, and the second for Ryan Woods who brought down Conor McGrandles as Lincoln broke away. It followed an overcomplicated corner routine from which Exeter lost the ball, where they should instead have simply crossed the ball into the box (for more reasons that one, as it turned out).
 
Exeter missed the chance to jump into the top six, but will look to continue their decent form away to high-flying Wrexham next Saturday.