Winning 2-1 last Saturday against a very competitive York City side meant City maintained their one-hundred per cent home record, writes Gareth Hughes.

It was the Minster men who went ahead after Nigel Worthington’s side led through Ryan Jarvis on 19 minutes scoring his fourth goal of the campaign. The lead however, only lasted four minutes as an injury to City striker John O’ Flynn saw his replacement Alan Gow make an immediate impact within 20 seconds of his introduction and with his first touch of the ball! City manager Paul Tisdale enthused about both teams: “York City played really well. I thought they were excellent and I am surprised they have had a poor start. They worked really hard for their manager and stopped us doing what we wanted to do and we had to pull ourselves up from our shoelaces.”

With the sides evenly matched, it was clear that York had done their homework on City, and having pulled the game back to 1-1, the half time period allowed the manager to ring the tactical changes.

Firstly, City’s young right back Jordan More Taylor was replaced with the more experienced Scott Bennett, and in the 63rd minute the balance of the team changed with the energetic Liam Sercombe replacing David Wheeler, giving a more attacking midfield with Alan Gow threatening and coming in from the right.

With 17 minutes remaining City sealed the win with a second goal from Gow with a spectacular 25-yard strike. Speaking after the game Gow said: “The second one was one of the best I’ve scored for a while, that’s for sure. I haven’t had many minutes on the pitch, but that’s one of those things in football. People forget that I’ve only played one 90 minutes since January because I had a serious injury when I ruptured my ankle.”

There can be no doubt this was an energetic and whole team performance with tactical changes that changed the game. Paul Tisdale said: “We had to improve in units and we had a long strategic talk at half-time about what we were trying to do and the players did everything I asked them to do. It is three wins at home out of three and that bodes well our home form compared to last year – it is something we have been conscious of and I’m really pleased.”

Tuesday’s now familiar exit from the St Johnstone’s Paint Trophy was in contrast to the York game, a very poor affair and City lost 2-0 against Wycombe. Playing a mix of the senior players with those younger players on the fringe unfortunately just did not work and the team could not compete where it mattered, and in truth bowed out of the competition without too much effort.

This coming Monday (September 9), all are welcome to come and meet City new signing David Wheeler at 7.30 pm at the Sidmouth War Memorial Club, Church St, Sidmouth.

There will be the usual question-and-answer format to the evening. It’s free admission, but we hope you’ll buy some raffle tickets, proceeds of which will all go towards facilities at ECFC.

Other City news includes striker Jamie Reid has once again been called up to represent Northern Ireland’s under 21 squad who play Belgium next Monday.

Tomorrow (Saturday), the Grecians resume their league campaign travelling to the Victoria Road Stadium to face Dagenham and Redbridge. The Daggers are 19th in the table, undefeated at home having won one and drawn both games played. As demonstrated last season City are more than able to win away from home and another away win would be add to the early foundations of what could be a great season. Come on you Reds.