Torquay visit Exeter City needing a win to survive!

Preview: Exeter City v Torquay United

It isn’t as if a derby match needs much extra incentive – but the stakes when Exeter City host Torquay United on Easter Monday are positively huge.

We have seen teams come to St James Park and sit behind the ball and play without committing to attack – but for the Gulls, anything other than a win will mean relegation.

Torquay need to win all three of their remaining games, including this derby match, to stand any chance of surviving in Sky Bet League 2 this season. And, even if they were to complete a miraculous effort to secure nine points from those three games, that is still no guarantee that they would survive the drop to the Conference.

A draw for Exeter away at Chesterfield – which might have been three, if not for the goalkeeping heroics of Spireites stopper Tommy Lee – means that the nerves are still jingle-jangling for some Grecians.

Realistically, it is unlikely that a defeat to the Gulls would put City into the bottom two on Monday evening – lower-placed teams Wycombe, Bristol Rovers and Northampton face Fleetwood, Rochdale and Portsmouth respectively.

But a win for City would ease any remaining tensions and allow that bit of breathing space going into the final weeks of the season.