St James Park Saturday 1st October 2022
Exeter City 2 Brown (72, pen), Nombe (81)
Bristol Rovers 2
Marquis (62), Loft (90+2)
Referee: Declan Bourne Attendance 7,816
Prior to the match much was made of Joe Barton’s preview in which he said that he didn’t like the Exeter management team given that they turned us over twice last season.
However, his comments were taken out of context by some who don’t appear to have read them in full as he did go on to say that he respected what they had done in getting Exeter promoted and that they were a very good team.
Motivation enough for Exeter, you would think, although there didn’t appear to be any bad blood in the technical area throughout the 90 minutes.
Barton made four changes to his starting lineup for the match, only one of which was enforced; Harry Anderson was ruled out through injury, while Paul Coutts, Alfie Kilgour and Trevor Clarke were all dropped and found themselves on the bench.
A fairly sterile first half saw Rovers create the best opportunities and it was in form striker Aaron Collins who came closest to breaking the deadlock; he saw one effort blocked by a home defender on 11 minutes and dragged a shot just wide of the target seven minutes later.
Ryan Loft tried an audacious lob from inside the centre circle when he spotted former Rovers loan keeper Jamal Blackman way off his line, but the striker wasn’t accurate enough and the ball was well wide of its intended target.
The goal that sparked the game into life arrived just after the hour mark and was scored by Barton’s side; all three strikers were involved as Loft found Collins wide on the left and his ball to the far post saw John Marquis sweep the ball home from close range.
At that point it looked as though Rovers had done enough to seal victory as Exeter seemed strangely subdued. However, the Grecians were handed a lifeline 10 minutes after Rovers’ opener when Antony Evans, playing as a right sided wing back in this match, dragged Jack Sparkes to the ground inside the area.
Referee Declan Bourne had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Jevani Brown, who had scored twice from the spot the previous week, stepped up to drive his penalty low to James Belshaw’s left for the equaliser.
Belshaw went the right way, but was beaten by the power and the placement of Brown’s effort. The keeper then handed Exeter the lead with nine minutes of the game remaining when he rushed out of his area in an attempt to head clear. However, the ball bounced over his head which allowed Sam Nombe to run in behind him and roll the ball into an empty net.
It wasn’t quite game over, though, as Rovers kept plugging away and scored a deserved equaliser two minutes into stoppage time.
Substitute Sylvester Jasper hounded home defender Jake Caprice and won possession of the ball before laying it back to Sam Finley. The lightening quick forward continued his run down the left, took a return pass from Finley and stood the ball up to the back post where Loft headed home to record his fifth goal of the season.
A point was no more than Barton’s side deserved.
Exeter City: Blackman, Key, Sweeney, Hartridge, Caprice, Harper, Collins, Sparkes, Brown (J), Nombe, Stansfield (Smith, 69).
Substitutes: Jay, Chauke, Cox, Brown (S), Borges
Bristol Rovers: Belshaw, Hoole, Thomas, Gordon, Rossiter, Finley, Evans, McCormick (Jasper, 82), Collins (Kilgour (90+2), Marquis, Loft.
Substitutes: Jaakkola, Coutts, Clarke, Saunders, Whelan.
ALSO
Jamal Blackman, a former Rovers loanee, was in goal for Exeter
Yellow cards were issued to Antony Evans and Sam Finley
Finley was skipper
Two substitutes used
Seven added minutes
Two days after the game the Exeter management team left to join Rotherham
(Photos courtesy of JMP)
Keith Brookman