Marked for Ed James
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Exeter City's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Exeter City has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Sep 2026
The goals have deserted Exeter City
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Exeter City can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ethan Brierley was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Frankie Phillips is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.03 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Exeter City had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Exeter City
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Exeter City are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Amankwah Forson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Johnly Yfeko sold
Sheffield Wednesday arrived with $2.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Exeter City sell a favourite for $2.2M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Johnly Yfeko was one of the reasons people came, and $2.2M does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Luca Woodhouse
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ben Barclay dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Exeter City, another week without a signature from Ben Barclay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Exeter City now.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danny Andrew and Exeter City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ed Turns is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Johnly Yfeko asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.