Another win, another clean sheet, as Grecians end Crewe's unbeaten start

Exeter City extended their unbeaten run to five matches after another solid defensive display saw them secure a 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night at St James Park.

Anthony Scully's first-half penalty put the Grecians ahead after George Birch was fouled inside the box by ex-City loanee Joe White.. The Railwaymen pushed for an equaliser, but Exeter remained resolute defensively, as Jack Bycroft brilliantly denied Adrien Thibaut in stoppage-time, before Reece Cole capitalised on Crewe's search for a late goal, finding himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper and calmly slotting home deep into stoppage time to seal a 2-0 victory, and end the visitors unbeaten start to the season.

The victory sees the Grecians climb to 10th in the League Two table, just one point off the play-off places. After a difficult start to the season, Exeter appear to have put their early struggles behind them, with a five-game unbeaten run helping to turn their fortunes around, while the result also handed Crewe Alexandra their first league defeat of the campaign.

Manager Matt Taylor was delighted with his players hailing tonight performance as “A months worth of work” for what was probably the best performance of the season

“In terms of our ball use in the first half, we were almost electric, weren’t we?," he said. "We looked like we could open the opposition up and get into fantastic attacking areas and positions.

“So, yeah, we’re certainly moving in the right direction. But I think that’s a month’s worth of work on show again and that’s, you know, all of a sudden, if you add the Oxford cup game into it, there’s a run of four or five fixtures where we’ve looked connected as a team, looked on the same page and we’ve improved.”

“We’ve not made their keeper make save after save. The amount of final-third entries we had in space tonight, we’ve got to really make their keeper work. They’ve actually defended their box pretty well, but we’ve got to make it count and be ultra-clinical.

“I said to the players at half-time, we’ve got to be better on attacking set pieces. That’s got to be another strength of ours, another element, something else in our armoury that says, ‘This is a moment.’

“First half, I thought we were too timid with our attacking set pieces because attacking moments, if you don’t score, you’ve got to sustain them or win a set piece for yourself. We had those moments, and we’ve got to add that to our game. But it’s one step at a time with this team.”

Taylor made just the single change to the side who drew 0-0 at Colchester United on Saturday. That came upfront where Sonny Cox came in from Josh Gordon, with the striker dropping down the bench.

Crewe won the toss and turned City around so the Grecians would have to attack the Big Bank in the first half. And with only three minutes on the clock they nearly had something to cheer when space opened up for Charlie Cummins 25 yards out, but Tom Booth parried the strike away. From the resulting set piece the ball was worked to Lakyle Samuel, but Booth stuck out a leg to deny him on the angle.

in the 20th minute, the Grecians won a penalty after brilliant work by Birch to drive past two men, before White brought him down in the box and referee Harry Wager had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Up stepped Scully, and he smashed it down the middle to put Exeter ahead, and ended a run of eight successive league games which had been 0-0 at the break.

Taylor praised the youngster’s contribution, describing him as a “massive plus for the football club”, and said: "Like I said, we just had a feeling going into the game. We fancied him (George Birch) on the right as opposed to the left tonight. He can do both sides, he can go both ways.

“But he’s, if you want, a player in a one-v-one situation in a bit of space. With how attacking Crewe are, they load you back to the line. So, if we could defend their moments and then tidy the ball, which we did in midfield, he was a constant outlet.

“Anthony is the same, but yeah, Birchie (George Birch) was the one who won the penalty, and I wouldn’t like to be a full-back backpedalling against him.

“But he’s just turned 20 years of age and he’s learning the game, and he was cramping up in the second half, which we can all see. So there’s a physical element where we’ve got to look after him, but he’s a massive plus for this football club.”

Crewe improved after the break and forced City back, but they were creating little and Bycroft didn't have a save to make until the 77th minute, firstly from Jordan Gibson when a cross found the striker at the far post and then from Holicek from the edge of the area which he held onto at the second attempt.

Cole on the break missed a golden chance to seal the win, before four minutes of stoppage-time were added-on, and in the second of them, Crewe had the chance when a cross found Thibaut, but his close range header was brilliantly kept out by Bycroft.

And that save was crucial as up the other end the Grecians went, Cole was stronger than a defender and was clean through on goal and smashed his finish past Booth to make it 2-0 and earn a vital three points.

“Naturally, they flood bodies forward and naturally you go deep," Taylor said of the second half. "That’s human instinct. I can’t fault the team in relation to that. Actually, for the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, we weren’t connected enough in terms of space. Once we just settled it down and made a couple of changes, we improved that.

“But they were still going to create chances. They’ve created chances and scored goals against every team this season, so if we go a little bit deep, I can’t fault them for that.”

The win for Exeter ended Crewe’s unbeaten start to the season - although they stay third in the table - and was another clean sheet, having now conceded just six goals in 12 league games with Taylor “proud” of what his players are achieving on the pitch.

“Their streak has been a longer one, obviously, and the amount of games and points they’ve picked up so far this season deserves credit. All credit to them, there’s lots to admire about Crewe and the way they play the game.

“But we’re proud of our home record and we want to build on that. Saturday’s the next opportunity, but tonight was a big one because it’s a top-three team who’ve come here unbeaten, and we’ve taken that from them. We’ve really enjoyed these three points.

“There will be games where we concede more than one. You’ve got to remind me, when I’m sat here frustrated when that happens, to still love the players.

“Twelve games into the season, six goals — that’s incredible. I’d like that to look the same after 24 games at the end of the season, like I’ve always said. But there will be times when an opposition team opens it up.

“It’s a difficult league against some fantastic opposition players, and it could have been Crewe tonight. Going into the game, I had a feeling that we were going to play our best attacking game. But equally, I could easily have gone the other way, given how dangerous a team Crewe are.

“Full credit to the group. They’ve withstood it again, and they can take a lot of confidence from that.”

Crewe had a penalty appeal of their own during the match when Jack Fitzwater seemed to have won the ball cleanly in real time, but after seeing replay, Taylor admitted he would have been calling for a spot-kick had he been in the opposition dugout, describing the incident from a Crewe perspective as a “clear penalty”.

“I’ll always be honest in terms of my assessment. If I was their manager, I’d be saying that’s a clear penalty. I can see why he’s not giving it, so I’m sure they’ll be disappointed.

“When you’re defensively as strong as we are, you need a little bit of luck to go your way, and that was the moment.”