Exeter City lose in stoppage-time

Match report: Exeter City 0 Southend 1

Exeter City fell to a 1-0 defeat in stoppage-time at the hands of Southend United at St James Park.

A well-contested game saw Exeter have a lot of the chances but Daniel Bentley was to record his sixth straight shut-out.

Exeter looked like they were going to also keep their sheets clean – only for Michael Timlin to steal it in stoppage-time.

Jimmy Keohane, Clinton Morrison and David Wheeler all come in for a start in the attacking positions, and Scot Bennett jumped in at centre-half – totally four changes.

That meant Graham Cummins took a seat amongst the subs, with Christian Ribeiro, Alex Nicholls and Lee Holmes all missing through injury.

Former Grecian Barry Corr was also on the bench, and took a seat in the dugout for the visiting team.

The Shrimpers nearly capitalised early on from a loose cross-field ball by Ryan Harley as Stephen McLaughlin gobbled up and drove goalwards – eventually City saw to the threat and forced the visitors to concede a throw.

Liam Sercombe then had Exeter’s first attempt as Wheeler played into his path, but his powerful attempt cleared the bar from 25 yards.

Harley was then at the heart of a long spell of possession in the inside-left position, as the home side attempted to pick a gap in the Shrimpers’ defence. Morrison, with back to goal, slipped a ball into the path of Keohane – the Irish midfielder took a touch and poked a left-footed strike just beyond the far post.

Wheeler, pressing high, managed to win the ball upfield from full-back Ben Coker – he played a one-two with Harley before drilling across goal and wide from a narrow angle.

On his return to the starting line-up, Keohane was making a nuisance of himself – Wheeler once again won the ball high to play inside to Keohane, and after playing wide to Arron Davies, piled forward to the edge of the area. Full-back Davies drilled a low cross but Keohane could only hit wide under pressure.

Despite Exeter having much the better of the play in the first period, Southend were certainly proving capable of causing a threat – and indeed Coker’s fizzing cross from the left byline picked out the run of Will Atkinson, who couldn’t direct his header on target.

Wheeler nearly had a chance to open the scoring in first-half stoppage-time as a ball from the back was allowed to bounce through, but Daniel Bentley was off his line quickly to gather.

Half-time: Exeter City 0 Southend United 0