As expected, Exeter City have announced that our clash with them, scheduled for January 10th, will now be rearranged.
It’s not for Sky, though; it’s because the Grecians absolutely thumped Wycombe 4-0 in the FA Cup Second Round, earning them a stab at the Third Round. Their reward? A tantalising tie against Manchester City, which may go some way to filling their financial black hole that briefly threatened their future recently.
Let’s be honest, nobody is really upset at that. Sure, a trip to Devon is a pain on a Tuesday, but who can begrudge a team in need getting a bit of football fortune? Even a team that beat us earlier in the season? Not me, even though I was booked to go to this one!
The perfect date for a game would be Tuesday, 10th February, because we play Plymouth away on the 7th, and we could all stay down in Devon for a few days. However, it remains to be seen when the rearranged fixture will be.
Games are routinely moved these days, be it for Sky or international games, and so this is no real surprise. As soon as they went 2-0 up at the weekend, I messaged my Devon lift and pointed out we probably wouldn’t be travelling down on a Saturday.
Going to Exeter on a midweek is not unusual, but it’s not fruitful either. In 2017/18, we lost there in the play-offs, and in 2002/0,3 they beat us 2-0 on a Tuesday night at theirs. However, we won 2-1 on a Tuesday in 1997 courtesy of Steve Brown’s late winner, and 3-0 back in September 1983 courtesy of a Ross Jack brace.
So it’s only 28 years since our last midweek win at Exeter, but after the win against Barnsley, our first league win at home against them in 50 years, we’re used to history-busting!