Exeter bag point against top-of-table Wycombe

But they threw away lead

Exeter City went two goals up but were eventually held to a two-goal draw at home to Wycombe in League One. With a previous two defeats in two against Wrexham and Birmingham, placed second and third in the league respectively, a win against top-of-the-league Wycombe seemed a real challenge for City.

This was compounded by the absence of captain Pierce Sweeney, and other injuries, which forced Gary Caldwell to play teenager Jake Richards alongside 36-year-old Kevin MacDonald in the midfield. But City certainly held their own, and were two goals to the good after twenty minutes, via Millenic Alli and Jack MacMillan. Wycombe fought back with a goal either side of halftime, and were easily in the ascendency as the game went on, but City defended well to keep it at 2-2 and end Wanderer’s 11 match unbeaten run.

The visitors had hardly touched the ball before City went ahead. Jack Fitzwater made a strong foray down the line and looped a cross into the box. The ball was not properly cleared (thanks to some surprisingly poor defending on the part of the league leaders), and it fell in the box to Millenic Alli, who used his strength to find a little bit of space and fire past Franco Ravizzoli high into the Wycombe net.

With the momentum firmly in their favor, City began to dominate the ball, pressing the Chairboys into their own half and creating chances as they did so. This paid off, with a second coming just after twenty minutes. A deep corner was flicked onto the post and bounced back into a packed six-yard box. It may have been a scrappy finish, but Jack MacMillan did not pass up the chance to notch his first goal for the club, firing home emphatically to double Exeter’s lead.

Just as the pleasantly surprised home fans had turned their noise right up, Wycombe responded with a goal from exactly the same source as City’s second. A corner kick was swung in well from the left-hand side, and, down to a mixture of lax defending and an excellent attacking run, centre back Joe Low got contact on the ball and sent a firm header past City keeper Whitworth. 

The half-time break gave Wycombe a chance to regroup, and they came out for the second half looking much more like the top side which Exeter had expected to face. They immediately camped in the City half, taking almost complete control of possession, and capitalised before 54 minutes. Daniel Harvie made a great run down the left-hand side, spotted Cameron Humpries on the edge of the box and cut the ball back well. With, from an Exeter perspective, far too much time and space given his threatening position, Humphries leant back and curled the ball low into the bottom left corner of Whitworths goal to draw his side level.

City sat back as the ninety-minute mark drew closer, often with almost no presence at all upfront, espescially after stand-in captain Josh Magennis came off in place of Jay Bird. In spite of this, Wycombe failed to convert all their pressure into many concrete chances, and only occasionally tested Whitworth. Ed Francis could have won it for City with a late freekick, but his effort dipped too late and flew just over the crossbar. Despite throwing away a two goal lead, Exeter will be pleased to have held league-leaders to a draw, and hope to kick on in search of the play-offs over the busy Christmas period to come.