From the Manager
Roy McFarland - Exeter City, Tuesday 19th January 1999
As the third round of the Auto Windscreen Shield kicks off, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our opponents Exeter tonight, who will, like ourselves, no doubt be relishing the chance of an opportunity to run out at Wembley in the final of this competition should you reach that stage.
And I'm not expecting anything less than a whole-hearted performance from them. All I have to do is remind myself of our game fast year when we travelled to Exeter and they beat us 1-0. That was during one of our best runs. Exeter also overturned Swansea lost week, who I think were probably, at the time, one of the in-form teams. They played well and didn't let Swansea settle on the ball. When they won the ball they used it well too. Additionally, Exeter are not pulling up too many trees in the league at the moment so that, without doubt, gives them the opportunity to go all the way to Wembley. I am expecting them to give this a really good go. However, we too are confident that we will be a difficult team, to overcome. It isn't an easy game for us, but the one thing that we do have on our side is home advantage. We had a home match against Northampton in the previous round and we came away successful so we have an equally good chance now too. In the last round we knocked out Northampton and that was a result we were especially pleased with. We are very happy to be making our way through this competition because, as far as I am concerned, it has been very important to us this season. Even though the AWS isn't highly thought of across the board, it has kept our interest and the pressure of the league off us. We have enjoyed the little cup runs that we have had this season. This competition could mean a final at Wembley, something everyone who has entered this competition would love, and I think that any sort of experience like that which can help the players mature and progress is invaluable. Generally, I am very pleased with the team as a whole. When we have gone behind in certain games, we have shown our character and fought back - which was evident in the previous round against Northampton. On two occasions in that game, we went behind. But the players stuck at it and we think we got our reward for it by winning the game 3-2. We are becoming a hard team to beat at the moment and on the injury front we are fairing well with a clean bill of health. We had a very good gate against Northampton and we hope it will continue. Finally, I hope that everyone who has come to the game tonight enjoys the action. ROY McFARLAND |