Next Up: Exeter City vs Leyton Orient
Matt Taylor described City as “sleepwalking towards relegation” after the limp defeat at former boss Gary Caldwell’s Wigan last week. With renewed hope of off-field stability with new boardroom appointments, City now embark on seven cup finals in order to preserve their status in the third tier. The international break sees City denuded of two attacking options in Josh Magennis and Timur Tutierov, meaning Sonny Cox could be in line for a start, while forgotten man Andrew Oluwabori could return to the bench in order to provide some attacking back up. Elsewhere the injury list appears to be shortening although Liam Oakes has been missing from recent matchday squads. The fact that Tom Dean and Kieran Wilson were loaned to Truro suggests Taylor still has plenty of options in his squad to choose from.
Like Mansfield, Leyton Orient are a side that tends to blow hot and cold, looking unbeatable at times while struggling elsewhere. As a result the Os have been struggling near the foot of the table but go into Saturday’s match on the back of four straight wins. It was that sort of form last season that saw Richie Wellens’ side reach the playoffs and, while those sort of heights are well beyond them, Wellens will be hoping for their strong run to continue to the end of the season. Key to their form once again has been Dom Ballard, whose 21 league strikes see him head the League One scorers table. Former City favourite Demetri Mitchell has had, unsurprisingly, a frustrating time with injuries, but he scored his first league goal for the Os in last Saturday’s 2-0 win over Wycombe.
The reverse fixture was a frustrating one for City – leading 1-0 at half time albeit against the run of play through a Wareham penalty, City gifted the hosts an equaliser through El Mizouni before Bakinson clinched a 2-1 win following a hotly disputed free kick award. City will look to exorcise the demons of last season’s match at SJP which saw a rampant Leyton Orient cruise to a 6-2 thrashing. It was 0-4 at half time (Abdullai with two, Clare and Markanday). City pulled two goals back early in the second half through Alli to evoke memories of the recent comeback against Crawley, only for Abdullai to complete his hat-trick and Donley to round things off. Those two wins have given the Os the league head to head lead with 36 wins to City’s 34, 26 matches finishing level.
The match officials for this game will be:-
Referee: Tim Robinson
Assistant Referees: Sam Lewis and Lee Venamore,
Fourth Official: James Hooper
With it being the international break Tim Robinson is slumming it in League One instead of the Premier League/Championship. The last time he took charge of an Exeter game was in August 2017, a 2-1 defeat to Charlton in the League Cup.
As it’s international weekend this game will be shown live on Sky Sports+.
Interview with Matt Taylor
Interview with Danny Andrew