Christmas – it’s a time for giving, so they say. We don’t know who they actually are, but we just hope Boro’ have done all their giving for this festive period after handing Newport County an easy three points last weekend. It is unlikely to be remembered as the best 70 minutes of football we have seen from a Stevenage side over the years, but the good news is that it’ll be hard to be worse than that.
Exeter City roll into town this weekend and it’s our first meeting with the Devon mob since March 2012. The last seven times we’ve played them, it hasn’t exactly been great. In fact, the last time we overcame the Grecians was back in 2006 – since that historic moment, we’ve drawn four and lost three. And goals have tended to be lacking too, which wouldn’t seem all that out of sorts with recent form.
The Grecians sit a pretty seventh in the table and haven’t lost in the league since early October. That sounds remarkably similar to the situation we found ourselves in with Newport County last week – and, to reiterate, we’d prefer not to go through that ordeal again. Hopefully, the fact that we’re back on our own patch this week and won’t be mugged off for £6.40 to cross a bridge will go in our favour.
Our home record isn’t too bad at the moment. In fact, if the league season was all about the home games and completely ignored the away ones, we would be sitting in 7th. But we give with one hand and take away with the other – Exeter have the second best away form in the division; or the best over the last six fixtures (four wins, two draws). We believe the phrase rhymes with “clucking bell”…
GW was chatting about “details” after our Newport performance but word on the street is that the devil is often found lurking the details. We’re all about the headline figures – three points, two forwards up top and Alan Partridge on DVD. Our main fear is that a similar performance to the one seen muddling around south east Wales will leave us battered, bruised and living a nightmare before Christmas.
We took up the challenge on FIFA 15 for this one, naturally, but found the virtual world to be as every bit unforgiving as the real world. We had this policy of you score one, we’ll score one back; you score two… and that’s where we ran out of ideas. The third Exeter goal is below. You can see how it was almost impossible to keep the pecker up after that defensive shower of Woking. Bah…
Down at the bookies, the guys and gals are edging towards an away victory so far as we can see right now. If you put your faith in the form book and decide that Exeter are onto an earner, it’s 15/8 as we tippy tappy on our keyboard. Boro’ enter this one at a best price of 13/8, while a draw is 12/5. Are we going to see both teams score? We think perhaps so, and you can get 31/40 at BetVictor.
We’re all but ready to step into Christmas but know that this weekend’s result could determine whether the turkey is served battered on Thursday. From the outset, it looks like a tough one in store with the Grecians doing a number on half the teams they’ve played on their travels. Do we wish it could be Christmas every day? If we get three points out of this one, then Wizzard might be on to something…
Exe marks the spot? Here’s the lowdown on Exeter City.
