So, the football rollercoaster is inching its way back up the incline. There’s still a long way to go and a good few points to pick up to ensure safety in League One, but things are certainly starting to look brighter, with brilliant results and a dramatic turnaround in form since Christmas.

In fact, the form table for the six games prior to the visit from Derby saw us sitting very pretty in second! But, as Gary himself has said recently, you’re never too far away from a crisis in football, so while we’re breathing a bit easier, there’s certainly no room for complacency.

We’ve had a couple of wins against some good sides in the last week or two. The Peterborough game was a great, but not particularly pretty, win, with a bit of luck going our way for once! And confidence was high for when the boys headed up to Wigan on Saturday to secure the 2-1 win, our third away win in a row.

It was a fantastic team effort and a well-earned result for our first visit to the Lactics since 1996. What a great goal for Mo Eisa on his full debut for the team, and du du du du du do you like the new chant….? A huge shout out to the 581 supporters who made the long journey north, a round trip of nearly 500 miles.

We’ve welcomed some new faces at the Training Ground, with six players joining in the January window and it’s good to see them integrating into the team. It takes time for the players to gel as a squad, so, as usual, we all need to give them a bit of time, but, in the meantime, welcome to Luke Harris, Ben Purrington, Millenic Alli, Charlie Cummins, Ryan Woods and Mo Eisa. This month also saw the 300th EFL league appearance for Pierce Sweeney – I mean how old is this guy?

Exeter City Women are flying high at the top of the league and they recently secured their semi-final spot in the FAWNL cup plate after a win over Billericay Town. They’re heading to St James Park for their match against Maidenhead WFC on March 10, so grab your tickets while you can. It’s always great when the women play at the Park and there’s a real family atmosphere – so come along and back the team.

Congratulations to Kev and members of the management team who took part in the Exeter City Community Trust Half Marathon at the weekend. The group took part to raise funds for the Exeter City Community Fund which supports six local charities – you can find out more here - www.justgiving.com/campaign/ecfcrunforacause  

And if you can donate a pound or two, I’m sure they will be very grateful. These events are so well organised by our partner charity, Exeter City Community Trust. They had 900 entries over the two days and heavy rain on Saturday night meant some parts of the course were flooded, so the team sprang into action and diverted the course, pulling together like clockwork, and staging the event with only a short delay to the start.

Up the City!

Julian Tagg
Exeter City Football Club President