Grecians step on the Gas

Exeter City inflicted a painful Westcountry derby defeat on Bristol Rovers in Sky Bet League One, thanks to a superb brace of first-half goals.

The defeat plunged Rovers into the bottom four with just four games to play but even the most biased of Gas supporters could argue against the quality of City’s winning strikes.

Caleb Watts opened the scoring with a sweet low strike on 11 minutes and Reece Cole doubled the advantage with an extraordinary volley before half-time.

It was a fabulous goal and, even though another fine finish from Ruel Sotiriou halved the deficit, the Grecians withstood home pressure in the final 20 minutes to bag maximum points.

Celebrating three points and his birthday, City manager Gary Caldwell told the club website: “It's a fantastic result, as this is never an easy place to come, which you could see before the game, as it was all or nothing for them. In the first half we were clinical and when we played, we hurt them.

"Our two goals were sensational, in terms of what we had worked on in the week. Caleb's was a good finish, Reece Cole's was an outstanding finish, and I wanted us to play more, as I thought we could have more moments like that in the second half.

"We could have scored the third with so many counter attacks where our quality and decision making has to be better. If the game goes 3-0 it's finished, but we knew what was coming when it went 2-1.

"Since January, this team has been incredible at seeing out games."