May 2, 2009
-
Phoenix
This one was composed for the Grecian magazine - in case we made the play offs. Getting automatic promotion instead means it is obsolete, unless used for the next season where Exeter will be playing in League 1!
Back to back promotions! Tis is a fugging hero!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/05/ecstatic_exeter_scale_the_heig.html#080985
Back in my student days, I was attending (although that is probably the wrong word for it, seeing how many lectures I skipped) Greenwich university. I think it is safe to say my attendance record was poor due to an intense lack of motivation to study and a high motivation to watch City games. Most of the debt I racked up over my time “studying” was incurred by my travels to watch Exeter play midweek games.
One game at the Park was against Hartlepool, but I was running late (having made a rare appearance at a lecture), so I managed to get in 3 minutes after the game had kicked off. As I went through the turnstile, I asked if there was any score.
“Yes mate – we’re 1 up!”
Sure I was delighted, but gutted that I had missed the goal. Thankfully there was a second, which I did actually see. City won 2-0. That was probably one of the earliest goals I have (kind of) experienced at the Park.
As mentioned in my previous article, the Taipei Red Lions recently hit the Bangkok Easter tournament, and I was left rather red-faced after conceding the quickest goal in tournament history. In the first game of the tournament, 3 games were supposed to kick off simultaneously. By the time the other 2 games had started, 5 seconds after our ref started the match, we were 1-0 down.
Having been to many tournaments and seen players try to score from the half way line several times, I should have been ready. But I wasn’t. Standing on the edge of my 18 yard box, I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking. And as the ball was hit – and it was hit as sweetly as Ryan Harley’s goal against Morecambe – there was only one place it was going. Despite scurrying back for it, the ball snuck in just below the bar, giving our opponents the lead after just 2 seconds.
For the rest of the tournament I was on the receiving end of more than just a few jokes about this faux-pas, one that all goalkeepers make at least once in their careers.
On the final day of the tournament though, like Christ on Easter Day, I rose once more. This time though playing for the Taiwan Mongrels, who had lost players through injury, and asked for some ringers.
“Didn’t you see me getting lobbed yesterday Dave?” I asked the captain.
“Yes mate,” came the reply. “That’s why we want you to go up front.”
A sign of just how desperate the Mongrels had become.
A goal down, and just a couple of minutes before half time, your humble chronicler (also the most rotund person on the pitch) had somehow lost his marker, and – from a pinpoint cross that even Moxers would be proud of, a header that was mildly reminiscent of Rob Edwards’ goal at Wembley. Although slightly further out. And slightly more powerfully hit. In fact, the only reminiscence is the fact that they both hit the back of the net.
The strength of any team is how they recover from the tough times. Exeter City has come through some torrid moments in recent history, but how many of our most optimistic fans would have dared suggest that the Grecians would end their first season back in the league for 5 years in a play-off place?
Tis and the bauys have worked miracles to get us here today, and I am sure I speak for all City fans around the world when I say we’re proud of you.
