Latest from inside Exeter City Football Club

For this week’s column, I thought I would start off by focussing on the Exeter City Women – especially after their impressive win at St James Park this weekend.

The team beat Moneyfields 5-3 in their exciting game at SJP, which was watched by a fantastic crowd of 1,550 who came along and cheered their team to victory. There was a fantastic family atmosphere, and, most importantly, there was some excellent football being played.

The club has confirmed at least two games for the women at SJP this season, with the possibility of two more. As a club, we’re committed to supporting the women’s team and have increased this season’s contribution to the team to £35,000.

We think they are a team who are going places, so if you like your football, get along to a game. Their home matches are played on Sunday afternoons at Exwick Sports Hub – go if you can, your support will be most welcome!

It was great to see our men’s management team supporting the women’s team training in the lead up to their match, with Gary, Nicho, Kev Miller and Perks lending a hand in their final training sessions.

Thanks to the work of our partner charity, Exeter City Community Trust, we have created opportunities for girls to play football from just three years old, with a pathway which leads right through to our women’s team. Visit their website to find out more!

Back to the men’s team, our game away to Oxford just wasn’t to be. An early goal and two penalties sealed our fate, but fair play to the 909 travelling fans who made the trip to Oxford and cheered their team to the end. I’m sure all clubs think their fans are special, but Exeter City fans just seem to be made of something different!

There were amazing debuts for our two new signings, who set foot on the hallowed turf of SJP for the Cheltenham game, having literally put pen to paper the day before! They fitted right into the squad and there was some fantastic play from Yanic Wildschut and a brilliant goal on his debut for Caleb Watts – I can see these two are already going to be fan favourites – especially if they keep playing like they did in that game.

Talking of fan favourites, it was good to welcome back our two Finnish players from international duty. It’s great to have Vil Sinisalo back between the sticks and hopefully it won’t be long before his fellow countryman Ilmari Niskanen is back from the injury he sustained during his team’s match against Denmark.

Having players on international duty in world cup qualifiers, let alone getting injured in them, has not really been a problem we’ve had to deal with before, I refer you to my earlier statement!

We were top of the league for the weekend of celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the Supporters’ Trust purchasing the club. It’s been a couple of weeks of reminiscing and remembering those dark days as various regional and national media have been here conducting interviews. I’ve shown a few people the padlocks which we put on the doors in the dead of night to keep Russell and Lewis out of the building…

The Supporters’ Trust works hard to make sure the club and its decision-making processes are as transparent as possible. Its next Fans’ Forum, which is open to all, takes place on October 5 with new CEO Jeremy Tipper. If you can’t make the event, it will be livestreamed. Nominations are also open to stand as a trustee of the Supporters’ Trust with the election taking place on November 18 – more information can be found on their website.

After the midweek clash with Luton Town in the Carabao Cup, City host Northampton before making the trip to Charlton Athletic.  

Look forward to seeing you at St James Park soon! And don’t forget, the future’s bright – the future’s red and white!