Official Exeter City FC Thread

The Grecians

Exeter City FC was formed from two predecessor clubs: - Exeter United and St Sidwell's United. Exeter United were a football club from Exeter, Devon, who played between 1890 and 1904. In 1904, Exeter United lost 3-1 to local rivals St Sidwell's United and after the match, it was agreed that the two clubs should become one. The new team took the name Exeter City and continued to play at Exeter United's ground, St James Park, where Exeter City still play today. The team formed from the cricket team of the same name and thus the first football team with the moniker 'United'. St Sidwell's United (which had also been known as St Sidwell's Wesleyans and St Sidwell's Old Boys) was a club that had formed from the regulars who frequented the Foresters Inn in Sidwell Street, Exeter; although the public house was always known as the Drum and Monkey. They played in St Sidwell's old colours of green and white.

On September 10 1904, Exeter City played their first ever competitive match: - a 2-1 victory at St James's over 110th Battery of the Royal Artillery, in the East Devon League. The attendance was 600, and the winning goal scored by Sid Thomas, who was to serve the club in various capacities for 70 years. City topped the East Devon League with 11 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat in their 1st season, and transferred to the Plymouth & District League for next 3 seasons.

City changed to their modern colours of red and white in 1910. This was after having had a poor start to the season (only 2 wins out of 11

City made an historic tour of South America in 1914, during which time they played 8 matches against teams in Argentina and Brazil. The Brazilian national team is believed to have played its first ever game against City on July 27, at the Laranjeiras stadium, Rio de Janeiro, home of Fluminense Football Club. City lost 2-0. That was the last match of the tour, which yielded 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. The only other loss was in a match that kicked off 12 hours after the players got off the boat.

Exeter City were invited by the Football League to become founder members of the Third Division in 1920.

City's only major trophy was the Fourth Division Championship which they won in 1990. In that incredible season, City won 20 league games at St James Park, and remained undefeated in 31 home matches, including dramatic draws against Norwich (FA Cup) and Sunderland (League Cup 4th round) both of which featured heart-breaking late equalisers for the visitors.

Back in the bottom division, City struggled for several seasons, with chairman Ivor Doble taking the club into Administration and starting a chain of events which resulted in the sale of the club's ground for what was considered a very low sum.

In 2003, City finished 23rd in Division Three and were relegated to the Nationwide Conference as a result - the first club to suffer automatic relegation without finishing bottom of the league. Exeter won their last game but were still relegated as Swansea's victory over Hull left the Grecians one point short of safety.

Following relegation to the Conference, the club was taken over by the Exeter City Supporters Trust. In May 2007 two of the Directors who had been in charge during season 2002-2003 were convicted of fraudulent trading at the club, John Russell receiving a prison sentence and Mike Lewis a community service sentence.

Several million pounds in debt and with no big investor in sight, the Trust kept the club going through fund-raising activities amongst rank and file supporters. Complex legal arguments with both the Inland Revenue and the football authorities meant that City's first season of non league football was plagued by off the field uncertainty.

In 2004, a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) was put in place to reduce the club's debts. Hundreds of fans pledged at least £500 each to fund the CVA repayments, but the FA Cup proved to be the income boost the Grecians had needed. City beat Braintree Town, Grimsby Town of League Two and Doncaster Rovers of League One to reach the third round, and were rewarded with an away tie against Manchester United. City drew 0-0 at Old Trafford in January 2005, gaining £653,511 as City's share of receipts from the near 70,000 attendance. Further income from a televised replay - won 2-0 by United - coupled with ongoing fund-raising and unpaid work from the club's supporters helped the club to repay its debts, and the CVA was cleared in December 2005.

The club's youth development work had some success, with Exeter City reaching the FA Youth Cup 3rd Round in 2006, when they lost at home to Newcastle United. City's first team finished that 06/07 season in fifth place, thereby qualifying for the end of season Conference play-offs, in which they lost the first leg at home to Oxford United, 0-1. A 2-1 win in the second leg at Oxford United took the tie to penalties in the semi-final, from which Exeter emerged victorious. They went on to meet Morecambe FC at Wembley in the final on May 20 for a chance to be promoted, but lost 2-1 despite taking an early lead.

The Exeter team celebrates after the 2008 playoff final win.The 2007/08 season saw Exeter again reach the play-off final, after finishing fourth in the league and overcoming local rivals Torquay United in the semi-final, scoring four goals in the last twenty minutes of the second leg. Exeter faced Cambridge United in the final at Wembley Stadium in front of a record crowd of 42,511 and won 1-0 through a Rob Edwards goal, thus earning promotion to League Two.

The club remains owned and run by its fans, through the Exeter City Supporters Trust.

Honours : FA Cup

Quarter-finalists - 1930-31, 1980-81

Football League Third Division South

Runners-up - 1932-33

Football League Third Division South Cup

Winners - 1934

Football League Fourth Division

Champions - 1989-90

Runners-up - 1976-77

4th Place, Promoted - 1963/64

Conference National

Play-off Winners - 2007-08

Play-off Finalists - 2006-07

FA Trophy

Semi-finalists - 2005-06

FA Devon St. Lukes Challenge Bowl (Incomplete)

Champions - 1953-54, 1954-55 (Shared), 1958-59, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1973-74, 1996-97, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2004-05

Runners-up - 1936-37, 1945-46, 1957-58, 1969-70, 1971-72, 1997-98, 2006-07

Players

Goalkeeper-Paul Jones

Andy Marriot

Nick Jordan

Defenders- Matt Taylor

Jack Oberstellar

Danny Seabourne

Steve Tully

Rob Edwards

Scott Bennett

Fredd Murray

Midfielders- Dean Moxey

Berty Cozic

Marcus Stewart

Liam Sercombe

Manny Panther

Ryan Harley

Neil Saunders

Matthew Gill ©

Strikers - Adam Stansfield

Ben Watson

Steve Basham

Richard Logan

Craig McCallister

Player to watch-Marcus Stewart

Youngster to watch- Toby Osman

Odds-33-1 to win the league

Rivals- Plymouth Argyle, Torquay United and Yeovil.

My first signing-Andy Bishop will be a transfer target for me.

Good start, I plan on doing Exeter alongside Spurs, the demo didn't go too well, but I think a decent MC is needed as well as a more regular scoring striker as I had a lack of goals during the demo, although the injuries could have also been a cause of that.

Yes I noticed that in the demo. The best person to buy at the start is chris senior from altrincham, he is a brilliant striker

I just couldn't get Marcus Stewart to score, the stats show he's still a decent player even at his age but yet he just didn't perform, something like 2 goals in 7 games.

Will also need to see who is available from the parent club as that can really change how a season goes.

I also found that Matt Gill didn't play well in MC, will be tempted to sell him as he's generally sought after at the beginning.

Suggestions to check:

Adnan Ahmed - Tranmere Reserves - DM/MC, 24yo and decent stats, around £3,000

Stewart Fleetwood - Charlton Reserves - FC, 22yo and seems alright, around £4,000

I just couldn't get Marcus Stewart to score, the stats show he's still a decent player even at his age but yet he just didn't perform, something like 2 goals in 7 games.

Will also need to see who is available from the parent club as that can really change how a season goes.

I also found that Matt Gill didn't play well in MC, will be tempted to sell him as he's generally sought after at the beginning.

I didnt really have the time to look at stewarts and gillys stats as they seemed to get injured in the first game against team bath and every game I tried they got injured. I would also look at andy bishop from bury he is brill and if you sell gilly then you could buy in bishop.

I scouted him but he didn't look worthwhile getting, I gave up on the demo after eight of the nine squad strikers got injured leaving me with just one 17 year old for up front. Will play proper when they fix that problem.

Bishop scores a lot of goals though

Whey the might grecians.

I like to play Marcus Stewart in more of a supporting role behind the two strikers, as hes not the best finisher in the world but can play some excellent balls.

Need to get the most out of ryan harley aswell.

I found Harley done well enough at ML to keep his spot there, am tempted to try Stewart as MC once the game turns up as I agree his scoring ability just isn't good enough to be a striker.

New player to buy is stewart fleetward from charton, you can get him for 4k. Superb striker.

I also got 250k from matt gill

Gonna start a game with them, as I have always done...

Whatever happened to that Irish bloke Breslan? Rowbotham, Mark and Terry Cooper... Martin Phillips was the 'star' player back then. Jeez, I'm getting old.

It's awesome that Brazil's first match was against Exeter. They should definitely send some scouts down there. I know I will, hehe

Glad to see you checked out one of my suggestions, he does look decent and at that price you can't go too wrong.

Who bought Gill for that much?

Have reached the start of the season and the match squad now looks like this:

GK: Button (on loan from Spurs)

DL: Barnard (£3k from Camberley)

DC: Edwards

DC: Seaborne

DR: Mtandari (on loan from Spurs)

ML: Moxey

MC: Panther

MC: Gill

MR: Ahmed (£4k from Tranmere)

FC: Hamed (on loan from Spurs)

FC: Fleetwood (£4k from Charlton)

I know Spurs well due to also supporting them and playing them in all other FM games so picked the best youths of theirs I could get my hands on. Ahmed is better at MC but am retraining him and he could be very good this season if his attitude improves. Fleetwood will give the strikers more strength whilst Barnard will help the defence despite his age.

I also have Rebosio turning up on free transfer on the 1st of Jan to give me another DC option.

TIP - Have found that searching for all players (that assistant manager thinks are suitable) and sorting by International caps, has been a good way of finding good, experienced players for City ;-)

SO far so good, into November and currently 2nd :-)

Azeryk

What tactics are you using?

Just a basic 4-4-2 with the ML and MR running up the wings.

Got two old defenders turning up in 2 months to help shore up the defence a bit more, one is N'Gotty the ex-french International

Is that the pre set or just team instructions?

Took the default one the team started with and removed the arrows for the defenders. Have never been a fan of sorting out tactics for this game ever since they made them more complicated.

Mid season report

Position: 3rd

Well it's looking good with the club fighting at the top, finances are very good due to sales of Basham, Tully and Gill, along with a nice little FA Cup run which ended against Portsmouth at Fratton Park. At the back the team is looking solid, Button is an ace youth keeper at this level whilst 3 of the 4 defenders are oldies but goodies that should see the team through this season and maybe next. Midfield is a bit weak but with limited transfer funds (club only gives you 5% of sales) and low wages they'res not much I can do here. Up front however is looking good, Hutton, on loan from Spurs is firing them in nicely, however strike partner Fleetwood is lagging behind although nothing too awful.

GK: Button

DL: Barnard

DC: N'Gotty

DC: Seaborne

DR: Rebosio

ML: Moxey

MC: Panther

MC: Ahmed

MR: Mtandari

FC: Hutton

FC: Fleetwood

I've always found myself struggling until I'd replaced most of the team. Seems like they've underrated most of them on '09.

Fortunately getting good loanies is much easier.

Carl Ikemi is a good replacement for Jones.

How'd you manage to sell Basham and Tully? I've only ever had bids for Gill and a loan offer for Ben Watson.

About half way through the season I still wasn't playing either of them so kept offering them to clubs, they both went for around £14,000 each, the cash wasn't too important, reducing the wage bill was.

I sold Gill to preston for 250k. Fleetwood is superb and I got him for 0 and so is ikemi ( the goalkeeper) who I signed on the cheap from wolves.. I also signed collins a midfielder from swansea for free. I am doing rather well at the momment.

They gave up at £150k for Gill, so I still have him. Though there are still clubs sniffing around him so who knows. Would rather keep him though. Couldn't even give away Basham...

End of season I'm bringing in a number of new players. All on a free of course, seems to be much easier to find good players for free on this game.

Keiran McKenna

Gordon Chin

Mohammed Sylla

Christophe Bastien

Thomas Butler

Nick Colgan

Sam Sodje and a few others.

I am seriously struggling almost bottom and cant even get a win. No matter what I try my team doesnt stand a chance, it is starting to p*ss me off serverely. I was knocked out of every comp first round. I think I am strong tactically but every single thing I try goes wrong, my players even though they have great attributes dont want to know , I critiscise them for a performance they hate me. I started off well and got to the top but since havent won a match in the last 15 matches. Fleetwood is a waste of space scored 1 goal all season and the keeper makes hundreds of mistakes even though he has superb attributes. I cant find a point from anywhere and is getting f*cking rediculous.

Have the players gelled well, what's your tactic? Maybe it doesn't suit them.

I am seriously struggling almost bottom and cant even get a win. No matter what I try my team doesnt stand a chance, it is starting to p*ss me off serverely. I was knocked out of every comp first round. I think I am strong tactically but every single thing I try goes wrong, my players even though they have great attributes dont want to know , I critiscise them for a performance they hate me. I started off well and got to the top but since havent won a match in the last 15 matches. Fleetwood is a waste of space scored 1 goal all season and the keeper makes hundreds of mistakes even though he has superb attributes. I cant find a point from anywhere and is getting f*cking rediculous.

What have you changed since your last post then? As you said you were doing well then and that Fleetwood was superb?

What is your team and tactics?

My team is very good on paper. I have only signed in ikemi and fleetwood and another midfielder. I play different tactcis to try and change it around abit but unfortunetly nothing is working. The main problem is the creation of chances, my team just dont create any chances.

I find that problem at home. Away I can win but at home my current tactic just doesn't seem to work.

Exactly, anything I do doesnt work home or away at the momment, I just cant stop being dominated, all teams I play even the very worst teams win against me, my tactics I think are pretty good, not perfect by any means, I know I have made big mistakes on some of the games but even when I think I have got them right I get stuffed.

In the tactics forum there's a thread called Man City 4-4-2 playmaker. That's the tactic that works for me, away anyway. Home, I had a different tactic but I can't find it

I'm playing as Exeter online in my clan mate, and I'm having the opposite problem to you Grecian. Won every game bar one (draw) at home 10 games into the league. And so far haven't even picked up one point away from home in all competitions .

Here are my signings:

| Date               | Person             | From               | Fee                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11.7.2008          | Barry, Anthony     | Chester            | £4K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Stewart, John      | Falkirk            | £5K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Hadji, Mustapha    | Fola Esch          | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Fleetwood, Stuart  | Charlton           | £4K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13.7.2008          | Toner, Ciaran      | Rochdale           | £4K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14.7.2008          | Reilly, Steven     | Queen's Park       | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20.7.2008          | Putterill, Raymond | Liverpool          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 30.8.2008          | Hendrie, Stuart    | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 30.8.2008          | Springer, Dane     | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 30.8.2008          | Hamed, Radwan      | Tottenham          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 30.8.2008          | Holms, Ryan        | Queen's Park       | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 31.8.2008          | Lawson, Paul       | Ross County        | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 31.8.2008          | Baker, Nathan      | Aston Villa        | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total              |                    | £17K               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                    |                    |                    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I finished 3rd in my first season, here are a few things that may be of interest:

As the pitch is narrow I played a 4-1-3-2 straight up the middle, slow short passing for high possession game since had high passing MC's.

Key signings-

Seyfo Soley - Free

Rebosio- Free

Mati Lember- 20k

Marcin Chmiest-20k

A whole load of players out-

I also totally restructured my staff. Not one person is worth keeping. Remember to offer mutuals! I got Massimo Neri in as my AssM. I would recommend him with his high motivation and man management for delvering good HT talks and his scout stats are 18 and 17 so good for player recommendation when offering contracts.

With the new patch I've started again. My old saves all fizzled out.

Why is Tully always depressed?

Ages ago, with the post I said, I ended top half, next season got auto-promotion, then in L1 won the title first season, but then, clan save file was ruined, so I restarted.

Here are my signings:

Transfers In:

| Date               | Person             | From               | Fee                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Nicol, Kevin       | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Joyce, Chris       | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Oakes, Michael     | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Riley, Nicky       | Celtic             | £5K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12.7.2008          | Shields, Paul      | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13.7.2008          | MacDonald, Peter   | St. Johnstone      | £12K               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13.7.2008          | Rogers, Dave       | Free Transfer      | Free               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 23.7.2008          | Abbey, George      | Crewe              | £3K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 30.7.2008          | Rose, Danny        | Tottenham          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6.8.2008           | McKenna, Kieran    | Tottenham          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7.8.2008           | Maghoma, Jacques   | Tottenham          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10.8.2008          | Smith, Adam        | Tottenham          | Loan               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total              |                    | £20K               | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                    |                    |                    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

With Spurs as my parent club youth was easy to get on loan. Adam Smith was given to me on loan, I then checked him out, thought, doesn't look great yet. So sent him back immediately.

Transfer Out:

| Date               | Person             | To                 | Fee                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 22.7.2008          | Tully, Steve       | Oxford             | £2K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    | Total              |                    | £2K                | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
|                    |                    |                    |                    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

I went over to to Topsham last year, went to an exeter city game with some friends.

Met dean moxey, is he still around?? When I get FM09 this will be my first game

Moxey's still around, but not for much longer as he is about to join Derby.

Best of luck everyone:thup:

DEANO DEANOOOO. Absolute legend, came and watched me play the other week. Haha.

Know a few blokes who reckon theyve macked his sister as well.

Yeah, the difference being though; i'm not lying.