From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
0‑2 against Port Vale, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Exeter City
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Exeter City are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a goal for Exeter City
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Amankwah Forson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ethan Brierley's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jack Bycroft gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
4.79. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Harry Ibbitson from Bradford City for $720.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market7 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Exeter City will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ben Barclay gets it from the manager
“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.
Market7 Sep 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 Jack Fitzwater.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market7 Sep 2026
A season-long audition: Manchester City still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Exeter City's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The numbers do not look good at Exeter City
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Frankie Phillips is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 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.
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
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Matthew Sorinola would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matthew Sorinola is living that version at Exeter City, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Josh Magennis, 36, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Johnly Yfeko has come up in conversations Exeter City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Josh Magennis. 1‑0 against Rotherham United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market17 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 Matthew Sorinola.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Liam Oakes conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bromley will make the call about Liam Oakes this week. Exeter City have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Exeter City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Exeter City
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nick Freeman gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nick Freeman has just signed for Exeter City, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Johnly Yfeko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Johnly Yfeko, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Exeter City signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.