Pools v Exeter: Colin West's Blue and White Army!

By Albatross
November 8 2002

It's been an emotional week to be a Poolie, and here comes our first game since CT's departure this week. Colin West and Martin Scott are in charge as Pools make the long trip down to Exeter - will the team carry on with business?

Exeter are one of the clubs that have changed their Manager recently, Neil McNab and Gary Bennett taking over from the sacked John Cornforth in an effort to improve on their early season form and avoid the drop.

Plenty of people were expecting one of the South-West teams to struggle and the other to challenge, but most people had Exeter down as the ones who would make waves; with new owners, and Cornforth making signings including former Pools loanee James Coppinger, the Grecians were expected to be at the right end of the table; however, things haven't quite gone according to plan, despite an audacious attempt to sign Paul Gascoigne, and the appearance for a few games of Lee Sharpe. Cornforth departed after a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of York in early October that left Exeter 21st in the table with just 11 points from their dozen games.

Their form since the changeover hasn't improved, and it was only last week that the new management team achieved their first league win with a 3-0 result at Boston. The week before had seen them thrashed 4-0 at St. James Park by our local rivals Darlington in their first match after Tommy Taylor departed. That victory sees them in the same place as when Cornforth left - 21st - with 16 points from 17 games, and just one point ahead of Boston and Carlisle. All four league wins have come against other struggling sides - Hull early in the season, Orient, Carlisle, and Boston.

Exeter in fact have the worst home record in the whole division, and under normal circumstances you'd expect this to be a dead cert away win; of course, with CT gone the situation is far from normal and Exeter may well feel that now is the best possible time to play Pools.

Exeter are making full use of the new loan rules, and have no less than five players from other clubs on their books at the moment: George Pilkington from Everton, Lee Barnard from Spurs, and no less than three from Portsmouth: Defenders Scott Hiley and Lewis Buxton, and Midfielder Carl Pettefer. All five started against Boston.

Top scorer for Exeter is Steve Flack, with seven goals; but he's not had a lot of support in terms of other regular scorers. Martin Thomas has netted three times, Andy Roscoe twice, and then 19 year old Reinier Moor netted his first goals of the campaign against Boston. There's a bit of a Striker Crisis at St James though, with Flack suspended, Veteran Don Goodman, Lee Barnard and Sean McCarthy all not fit, and Moor spending most of the week with Eire u21s. As a result they have signed former Cambridge forward Colin Alcide on non-contract terms and he is likely to play against Pools.

Exeter tend to play 4-4-2, and this has meant that Coppinger has spent most of the season on the right side of midfield. He's netted just once, in the 2-1 defeat by Torquay.

Young Brazilian Santos Gaia has made an impression in the Exeter midfield this season, but seems to let his Latin temperament get the better of him: he's so far clocked up 4 yellow and 2 red cards. The Grecian most likely to catch the eye of any visiting Poolies though is their female mascot Athena, who appropriately would look good on a poster!

With Colin West taking charge, we're unlikely to see much in the way of radical change in the team. Given Exeter's poor record at home, this should be a game to stick with 4-4-2 and go for the win. Arno would seem to have done enough to keep the right back slot, and so the team that started against York is likely to continue.

Where Colin West will have some lattitude is on the bench, and it will be interesting to see who he goes for. Provett is secure, and I suspect Widds will be on there, but everything else is up for grabs. Matty Robson and Steven Istead both impressed in the Youth Cup at Port Vale in midweek, and with Martin Scott travelling to Exeter both may find themselves joining the first team squad.

A lot depends on how the players react to the upheaval of this week. If they are distracted by it, Exeter are in with a shout: if they pull together then there should only be one winner. With the continuity of Colin West in charge, and experienced pros like Humphreys, Tinkler and Widdrington in the squad I'm betting on the latter: so a 2-0 win for Pools with Eifion and Richardson netting.