Too little, too late for City
The Grecians fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Mansfield Town on Saturday in Sky Bet League 2.
First-half goals from Rakish Bingham – making his debut for Mansfield – and Fergus Bell gave the Stags a two-goal advantage at the interval.
Matt Grimes, on from the bench, netted a stunning free-kick for a reinvigorated City side after the break.
But the home side couldn’t force that equaliser and ultimately were downed 2-1 by their guests from Nottinghamshire.
With players returning to fitness, Christian Ribeiro and Alex Nicholls went straight into the starting XI for their debuts – it was a first start in the Football League for Nicholls for almost two years. Jordan Moore-Taylor also returned, taking a place at centre-half after missing the start of the season with a foot injury.
Fresh from international duty with England’s Under-20s, Christy Pym started between the sticks for the Grecians, while Matt Grimes began on the bench.
And even start saw some good football from both teams but the two keepers were relatively untested. Graham Cummins’ looping header from a high cross was the closest either team came to earning an opener in the first ten minutes.
Cummins won a free-kick outside the area with some smart forward play – that allowed an intelligent set-piece by Matt Oakley and Liam Sercombe to tee up Craig Woodman to strike from 25 yards. The effort nicked off a Stags head and out for a corner.
The deadlock was broken at the other end by Stags debutant Bingham. Bell hit a half-volley with venom in the right channel which was kept out initially by Pym, only for the former Wigan man to hammer in from inside the area with a quarter of an hour played.
Bingham was certainly the dangerman for the visitors and he linked up again with Bell for the latter to strike from outside the D – a deflection off a Grecian foot took the ball wide of Pym’s post.
A goal to the good, Mansfield were making the majority of the chances and good defending was needed to deny Bingham another route to goal, with Moore-Taylor holding the striker up well.
Bingham was released through on goal with a direct ball upfield which fooled everyone except the striker – Pym made a superb save in the one-on-one to deny the striker a second.
However Bell finally knocked the door down for a second time on 40 minutes with a thunderbolt of a second – he cracked a scorching volley just inside the post from outside the area, with the aerial ball having only been half-cleared.
Half-time: Exeter City 0 Mansfield Town 2
Read more at http://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/fixtures-results/match-report/index.aspx?m...
