Exeter City match thread

It will be nice to be able to get to a game again!

Exeter City
Likely to be a difficult year for the fan-owned club who have little money and finished 13th last season. Managed by ex-Scotland international Gary Caldwell. He had some success with Wigan back in the 2015-16 season but has had an indifferent career before joining Exeter. He has kept them in mid-table for the last couple of seasons which looks to be pretty good going, given their finances.

The problem they face this year is that most of their defence has departed. Finnish goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo has gone back to Celtic, Zak Jules has joined the dark side at Rotherham, Alex Hartridge has gone to Wycombe and Will Aimson to Wigan. The replacements are Tristan Crama, on loan from Brentford who played a reasonable amount for Bristol Rovers last season and 20-year-old highly rated Joe Whitworth as GK, on-loan from Crystal Palace who has played a couple of times in the Premier League. He has performed well so far saving lots and being praised by his manager for his distribution. Not the tallest keeper, reported as 1.79 m. They have picked up Johnly Yfeko from Rangers, on a loan with an option to buy, a left footed centre back who has been earning rave reviews. Pierce Sweeney is into his ninth season at Exeter and has been ever-present in the defence.

They have also lost experienced midfielder Tom Carroll, sort of replacing him with Ryan Woods (who is a different type of player) from Hull who has loads of Championship experience and fans seem very pleased with the pick-up. Reece Cole, top scorer with six last year, is still there and will need to be solid.
They struggled to score goals last season and the experienced Josh Magennis has come from Wigan on a free. He did pretty well for Wigan in a limited number of appearances, and as a low volume shooter, but hasn’t played over 2,000 minutes since 2020-21. Much will depend on whether Sonny Cox can improve from last season. Jay Bird, picked up from Arbroath, hasn’t made an appearance yet. Look out for Ed Francis and Kamari Doyle coming through from midfield as well as Amani Richards on loan form Leicester.

They generally play with three at the back and they seem, from the stats, to have a possession heavy, defensive style. They have only scored 8 goals in the league but only let in 6. They have the worst xG for in League 1 and are running slightly hot. They do get the ball into the box but don’t shoot much or very accurately. They don’t cross very much either.

They have had a difficult set of matches to start this season but have navigated it steadily with three wins, three losses and two draws. Notably they beat Rotherham at home to open the season, sparking a bout of petulance from he who shall not be named, and Bolton away. Looking forward to some easier games in October, starting with us!

Statistically, the teams are similar, although Exeter are more possession focused than Orient, so this will be a tight game. We are without Dan Happe and Sean Clare which means Jordan Brown starting. I wonder whether Jack Currie and Dom Ball can manage two games in four days with Lincoln away on Saturday. Ollie O’Neill should definitely start. Orient have played two more games than Exeter who did not have a mid-week game last week so the last twenty minutes might be difficult.

In: Ryan Woods DM (Hull, free), Jack McMillan RB (Partick Thistle, free), Josh Magennis CF (Wigan, free), Jay Bird CF (Arbroath, free), Ed Francis DM (Gateshead, undisclosed), Joe Whitworth GK (Crystal Palace, loan), Tristan Crama, CB (Brentford, loan), Johnly Yfeko LB (Rangers, loan), Kamari Doyle AM (Brighton U21, loan), Amani Richards RW (Leicester U21, loan), Mustapha Carayol LW (free)

Out: James Scott CF (St Mirren, free), Tom Carroll CM (MK Dons, free), Zak Jules CB (Rotherham, free), Alex Hartridge CB (Wycombe, free), Gary Woods GK (Morton, free), Joe O’Connor CM (CSU Eagles (USA), free), Will Aimson CB (Wigan, undisclosed), Mitch Beardmore LM (Plymouth Parkway, loan), Tom Dean CM (Plymouth Parkway, loan), Harry Kite CM (released), Kyle Taylor CM (released), Harrison King RM (released), Luke Harris MF (Fulham, end of loan to Birmingham), Admiral Muskwe CF (Luton, end of loan), Cheick Diabate CB (Bradford, loan)
Last seasons: Exeter City 1 Leyton Orient 2 (9 September 2023))
Leyton Orient 2 Exeter City 2 (9 April 2024)