Month: September 2025

Dominance Rewarded

Though unnecessarily fraught at the end of a game which could have been resolved several times over, Town’s much-improved energy and intent deservedly delivered three points away from home for the first time since Reading.

Sprinkled with several very good performances, the victory was built on an aggression largely absent from the drab home draw with Burton, with the spurning of multiple chances being the only real negative of a fruitful trip to Devon.

Despite a good effort by Castledine which curled past the far post in a precursor of what was to come, Town started sloppily in the first 15 minutes, and it was the hosts who should have opened the scoring when the visitors lost possession. A good ball into Magennis was expertly brought down by the striker to create a chance he rather inexpertly put wide.

The let-off seemed to inspire the Terriers, who proceeded to dominate the game with a first-half display which could have resulted in a healthy lead. But not only did they go to the break with just a single-goal advantage, they suffered a scare at the end of the half when an Exeter equaliser was harshly ruled offside.

As it was, the advantage was secured by a fine Castledine strike which, unlike his earlier effort, found the target off the post with the rather diminutive home keeper well beaten.

Exeter couldn’t say they hadn’t been warned, though Roosken’s dummy run created a slight hesitancy which gave Castledine an extra moment to evade any block of his excellent effort, which satisfyingly clipped the post on its way in.

The goal had been coming, with Town imposing themselves on their lowly opponents after the early scare. With Kasumu and Harness prominent, Sorensen an increasing threat down the right, and the movement and hard work of May and Wiles creating spaces, superiority was established.

Harness fired over with an instinctive shot following good work by Sorensen, who himself came close after stripping a couple of defenders before menacingly attacking the area. His technique was slightly awry, and his shot curled away from rather than into the goal.

Wiles was also guilty of a poor miss, dragging his shot wide when played in, while—perhaps most surprising of all—May crashed a very presentable chance over the bar following another excellent move.

The late scare before half-time was a timely reminder that the lead was fragile. While Exeter had rarely been in the game since their own early miss, the home side was always going to create a chance or two.

Shortly after half-time, Nicholls was called upon to make a very good save from a rasping drive following a neat move by the Grecians. Town were going to have to earn their points.

What followed was encouraging and frustrating in equal parts.

More chances came and went, with the most egregious being Wiles’ failure to head home from a few yards out with only the keeper to beat.

Sorensen, who has grown into the season rather promisingly despite still displaying some defensive frailties, had attempts blocked, the unfortunate May saw a shot deflected on to the bar, and substitute Taylor should have done much better than shooting wide when played in by May.

All the while, the growing fear that the profligacy would bite the Terriers’ collective posterior gnawed at the away supporters, who had a close-up view of the hosts’ late rally. It ultimately came to nothing but was concerning nonetheless.

The modest four minutes of injury time were largely played in Town’s half, and a couple of corners threatened their lead but were relatively easily negotiated, and a very welcome away win was secured.

Setting a growing injury list to one side—and there were one or two niggles in this game which may cause concern, including one for the quietly impressive Ledson—there was much to be enthused about in the performance, even if slightly dulled by the poor conversion rate.

At the back, Feeney was imperious and barely put a foot wrong, while the masked Roosken looked far more comfortable at left-back and got forward well at times.

Ledson and Kasumu formed an aggressive and effective partnership in midfield, allowing the attacking players the platform to play, once the hesitancy and poor passing of the first 15 minutes subsided.

Nicholls’ save, his distribution, and overall control of his area vindicated Grant’s decision to keep him in place, as he begins to resemble the keeper we knew a few seasons ago.

Exeter look a little doomed, and defeating the community-owned club with our budget should be placed in context, but this was the best league performance for some time and keeps the team well in touch as another set of more challenging games approach.

The Big Yawn

Relentless, metronomic, and efficient, Manchester City brushed aside a committed but hopelessly outclassed Huddersfield Town in a yawn-inducing encounter that ended the Terriers’ unusually long League Cup involvement for another year.

City’s domination of the ball, particularly in a disappointingly bland first half, made for a largely bloodless, sterile contest. It might have been improved had someone in blue and white crunched into a smug counterpart to lift the spirits of a home crowd dulled by the inevitable.

Connoisseurs of the modern game were no doubt purring at the sight of hugely talented elite players passing their inferior opponents into submission, while those of us of a certain age bemoaned the absence of an underdog’s relish for a scalp.

It may have helped Town’s cause to have selected someone up front other than fifth-choice striker Charles, who ran around without influencing the game even as a nuisance and posed not the slightest threat. But Exeter awaits.

The passivity of the Terriers quietened a crowd swelled by Premier League enthusiasts, and this was not helped by the necessary sacrifice of the South Stand to a noisy away support. The absence of hostility, on and off the pitch, gave the first half the air of an exhibition match as City strolled through with stark superiority.

For all their possession and quality, however, the visitors lacked penetration for much of the first period. They eventually took the lead through a strike by Foden worthy of any stage, arrowing a left-footed shot from outside the area beyond a helpless Nicholls after a neat one-two.

Town’s only attack of note before the break saw Wiles break into the box to take a Redmond ball in his stride, only to fire it a little too enthusiastically across the area. Sorensen, the nearest to making contact, was beaten by the pace.

Deservedly ahead at the break having barely broken sweat, City had established the gulf in class, and with their opponent suitably cowed, their tranquil path to the next round looked inevitable.

That journey was never truly threatened in a slightly more entertaining second half, though Town put up a little more of a fight despite being relentlessly pinned into their own half for long stretches.

Nicholls, solid throughout, made one excellent save to deny O’Reilly’s attempted chip when clean through, and was well positioned to make three or four other routine stops.

He was entirely helpless, however, to prevent a rasping drive from Savinho around the three-quarter mark. Having thwarted City for the first half-hour of the second period with a mix of accomplished and desperate defending, it was disappointing to leave the Brazilian international with so much space near goal—but the strike was devastatingly good.

If the tie had ever been in doubt, it was now over. Still, Town at least showed more ambition. Before the second goal sealed their fate, a good free-kick delivery saw Murray head wide when unmarked, while Redmond shot over from a good position after another set-piece header had been won in the box.

Cameron Ashia came on as a late substitute and immediately changed the dynamic down the left with a couple of promising carries, before curling an excellent effort against the post—the hosts’ highlight of a largely disappointing night.

Loaded with high-quality internationals—and Kalvin Phillips—City completed their task against opponents who never truly decided how to compete and, in the end, paid heavily for over-caution, though it could be argued that a bolder approach would only have brought an even heavier price.

Defensively, there was much to admire about the resilience, concentration, and discipline required to restrict such a quality-laden City. Feeney, in particular, stood out, while Nicholls surely tightened his grip on the keeper’s jersey.

As a spectacle, the game lacked the thrills usually hoped for in a David v Goliath contest. There was no chance for the underdog to unsettle petrostate-funded talent, and Grant’s team selection rather betrayed that his eyes were on Devon rather than on making it to the next round with another higher-league scalp.

A win on Saturday would more than compensate.

Brewing up a stinker

Even a convincing win against lowly Burton Albion wouldn’t have absolved Town from the ignominy of defeat at Valley Parade seven days earlier.

That derby capitulation crystallised the suspicion that Town is a collection of individual talent significantly underperforming under a rookie manager, whose commitment to the coaching manual is looking increasingly dogmatic.

After a lethargic first hour, with far too little invention, the hosts were grateful for two sharp saves by Nicholls, an excellent block by Ledson, and a headed miss by Beesley as the Brewers defied their underdog status with a first-half performance that deserved more reward.

Other than Kasumu, who provided virtually all of Town’s energy, too many in blue and white underperformed. Their stodgy, mechanical approach rarely looked like producing a breakthrough, with the promising Alves barely allowed any space or freedom by the solid visitors, while Castledine, now getting starts, had too little influence.

Up front, Taylor was isolated, and while May gets through a prodigious amount of work, surely it is time for him to be played as the out-and-out striker he is.

It would have been interesting to see how Town might have responded had Burton taken the lead they deserved. Maybe it would have woken them from their torpor, but a hugely disappointing first half was a soggy mess as the expensively assembled squad, for the second Saturday running, struggled to match the tenacity and controlled aggression of an actual team.

Underachievement in the first 45 minutes is now a feature of the season, not a bug, and it was to be expected that Town would improve after the break—and this they eventually did. To an extent.

Taylor latched onto an excellent long ball from Feeney just before the hour but rushed his shot, wasting a very good opportunity. It was, however, the beginning of home dominance which, in normal circumstances, would have brought victory, but Burton’s resilience proved exemplary to the end.

It is to damn with faint praise to report that the Terriers finally removed their heads from their fundaments and sufficiently raised their performance to offer some threat against a side who will, hopefully successfully, be fighting relegation this season, just as they did last.

Following Taylor’s botched opportunity, he hit a weak shot after a promising break with two men to his left isolating one defender. A poor decision, possibly born of frustration at his earlier miss, but hardly helpful to the cause.

Castledine then missed the next opportunity after good work by Kasumu and May, and an intelligent leave by Taylor left him open on the right. Though a little wide, and with two defenders converging upon him, the Chelsea loanee needed to shoot across the goal from whence the ball came but sliced well wide.

By now, Town’s pressure was as intense as the persistent rain and, admirably, Burton were straining every sinew to shut out their hosts. At last, the game had delivered some entertainment.

Completely spent as an attacking force, the visitors somehow managed to keep the ball out of the net in a frantic finale.

First, Roughan hit a perfect shot from just outside the area which was somehow blocked on the line. Low should have scored from two yards out with a header from a corner, but an instinctive save by Collins kept the game scoreless, before another excellent Roughan effort went narrowly wide.

The final piece of brilliance by the Burton defence saw Hartridge clear an excellent Radulovic header off the line, and the game ended goalless.

Though the litany of chances in the last half-hour appears to point to the bad fortune that can happen during a campaign, it in fact just emphasises the current malaise of Grant and his squad.

Unable or unwilling to settle on a first eleven, the slow starts which afflict the Terriers may be the result of lacking cohesion through constant swapping and changing.

Developing partnerships across the pitch seems to be a slow process, and there is little evidence they are even close to being achieved. Perhaps patience is required as new players like Alves, Redmond, Castledine (to an extent) and, still to come, McGuane settle in.

An inexperienced manager overseeing a virtually brand-new squad isn’t going to be without issues, but the dirge served up in the first hour against the Brewers cannot be excused, and the assumed easy points were deservedly dropped.