TIVVY ARCHIVE

Exmouth Town 4 - 3 Tiverton Town

"The time has come‚" the Walrus said‚
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings." Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)

No‚ on second thoughts‚ let´s not talk of such things. Firstly I´m not a Walrus‚ and secondly I couldn´t give a toss about the proposed subjects for discussion. What I do care about is the football club I have supported for the last 17 years or so.....and what is happening to it. What I do care about is commitment: and the honour - nay‚ duty to both have that commitment and to do one´s best to fulfil that commitment once it has been made. Maybe it is just the 'old fashioned´ standards instilled in me as a child but - if pressed my own children could explain how some commitments have affected my life. But even at the more simple level of commitment to a football club the basic principles apply. It would be easy for me to throw up my hand´s in disgust at some recent performances from my chosen team and say 'Why should I bother'. Why should I bother to sit for a couple of hours in front of a keyboard commenting on their efforts (? Debatable choice of word)? why should I arrange my holidays‚ and other activities‚ around their calendar? After all‚ I´m not receiving any remuneration or under any form of contract other than one of duty to do what I have said I will do. i.e. file a match report from every game I can possibly get to....and to do so to a standard that is both expected and acceptable. Oh‚ that even that modicum of commitment - to meet basic standards - was shown on every occasion by some of those on whose performance I have to comment. I sometimes think that it would be simpler and more rewarding to turn my thoughts‚ as did Lewis Carroll‚ to things like "shoes and ships and sealing-wax‚ cabbages and kings‚ and why the sea is boiling hot‚ and whether pigs have wings"‚ and it wouldn´t take much change in my mind-set‚ would it?...both are utter nonsense!

The Yellows were on a hiding to nothing. Win...'and so they should' - lose and they were rubbish‚ crap‚ or some other expletive. Nothing new there. It´s a situation that arises frequently throughout every level of the game.....the difference is that it has been happening consistently‚ too consistently‚ at the estuary of the River Exe - and it is the manner in which it has been happening that attacks the gall bladder. With an experimental team it was hardly surprising that Tiverton took a little while to settle and get into their stride but by the time the first five minutes were completed there was a pattern beginning to emerge. Exmouth were full of fire and enthusiasm....it was after all a big game for them. The Yellows were calmer‚ steadier and looked to be playing within themselves allowing their hosts to burn off a proportion of their adrenaline fed energy.
The seaside´s pumped long balls forward for their front men to chase‚ Tiverton cleaned them up and tried to play the ball forward methodically‚ avoiding the enthusiastic challenges of their opponents and trying to maintain possession. It didn´t always work that way and the harassment sometimes won the ball for the blue shirted side‚ giving the chance for target men Richard Spiller and Sufyan Ghazghazi to be launched forward again. In fact the Exmouth defence coped admirably‚ working to cover each other and to restrict the Tiverton forwards´ movement both on and off the ball. When Kezie Ibe did eventually manage to jink his way through in the 14th minute‚ goalkeeper Simon Harris showed that he was quite capable of playing his part too with a two handed save to turn away a fierce shot.

The deadlock‚ though. was broken in the 15th minute‚ but not as a result of any slick approach play. A free kick out wide on the right was swung in by Shaun Goff and Dave Hambly connected fair and square just outside the far post with as firm a header as one could wish for to send the ball firmly into the net. Tivvy were on their way!...we thought.

Two minutes later Ibe was again in the thick of the action as he swapped passes with Paul Milsom but had to be content with the ball being touched away for a corner. This time there was no head to meet the cross‚ Milsom failed to connect by a yard‚ and though Tivvy had the better of things for the next ten minutes they failed to exert any dominance and the home side gradually became stronger until they were marginally on top. Spiller cut in to fire a shot against Mark Ovendale´s legs in the 29th minute‚ to which Tivvy replied with a piece of battling play by Hambly that saw him break free of three Exmouth men to feed Mudge who slipped the ball into the path of Ibe‚ only for the Yeovil man to blast wide with only Harris to beat.

That could have been the turning point. Exmouth took the game by the throat. Ghazghazi charged through the middle on a solo run that again had Ovendale saving with his legs and the ball seldom moved out of The Yellows half by more than a few yards. It was on the cards - the equaliser. When it came it was all the more galling for the Tiverton contingent since it was scored by former Yellows skipper Neil Saunders as he turned in a low cross from the left at the near post.

Tat really lifted the home side who scented another Tivvy scalp for their collection and they set up camp in enemy territory reducing Tiverton to occasional breaks when they were able to relieve the pressure.

Mudge was everywhere and when he popped up wide on the left as a result of one of those brief excursions out of defence the had little support so cut in across the face of the penalty area. The gap was spotted and the left boot swung. and although it was not the crispest of Mudge´s shots it was still hard enough and true enough to beat Harris and restore Tivvy´s lead - unconvincing though it might have been - for the four minutes to the half time break.

Rob Cousins was the only half time change in the line-ups and his introduction in place of Tom Stocco had little effect. In fact there was a greater degree of change in the game overall. It was far more constricted and less open than the first half. For the initial fifteen minutes there was little to chose between the teams as they cancelled each other out and it was not until the 59th minute that there came the first attempt on goal when a Tiverton free kick was touched to Mudge on the right of the penalty area and his powerful cross goal shot was helped on its way past the far upright by the palm of Harris. There was one notable incident before that‚ though‚ and that was the double substitution from Exmouth that saw two more former Tivvy players join their ranks‚ Steve May and Richard Pears.

Just after the home side had used their last substitute‚ Adam Faux in the 62nd minute‚ Tiverton increased their lead. And yes‚ it came from a set piece not open play. A free kick a couple of yards outside the penalty area and roughly central. We all knew what to expect and‚ sure enough weren´t disappointed. The set routine‚ but even then it took a stroke of fortune to convert into a goal as the ball took a wicked deflection in the wall to carry Mudge´s shot looping up and over Harris to drop into the goal.

At 3-1 the game should have been over but Exmouth weren´t having any of that and though they were two goals adrift they continued the fight. And what a fight it turned out to be as just as in the first half they steadily increased their work rate and building on that steadily built up control of the game. From "even Stevens" at the sixty three minute mark they were back into it by the seventy third. Two charging runs from mid-field by Steve Winter had brought nothing but a near post header wide from Jamie Densham and after relentlessly building the pressure on the Tiverton defence the home side at last found a chink when David Steele failed to intercept Paul Pocock on a run and‚ though the speedy Exmouth man was going away from goal, Ovendale hauled him down - or was judged to have done so by the referee. Up stepped Pears to plant the ball powerfully into the back of the net. And four minutes later Pocock was again causing problems as he nearly, but not quite nipped between Cousins and Ovendale. Tivvy looked to be hanging on and when Pears broke clear to hammer in a shot that flew off the top of the crossbar in the 81st minute, it looked as if fate might be on their side.

Luck might be a lady but fate is a bitch, and she decided to smile on the Blues. Not that they didn´t deserve it. they certainly continued to chaser and fight for every ball and every scrap of a chance that was going. Typical then was the second equaliser headed home from a left wing cross by defender Steve Jenkins who had powered forward in support in the 88th minute.

So it looked like extra time again. Not to Exmouth it didn´t, though the way they were dominating proceedings they would have to have felt confident of winning through. Two minutes plus whatever the referee decided to add, just might be enough to do the job anyway so they went for it. Tivvy attacked, Exmouth defended, and broke. Tiverton defended and moved forward again. four minutes into the added time and the ball was lofted out of the Exmouth half. Spiller latched onto it and made a bee-line for goal, unchallenged until Ovendale moved forward. Spiller shot and pealed away to meet his triumphant team mates as they poured forward to greet him before the net had settled back to limp normality with the ball nestling in its bottom folds.

Nonsense! Or at least it was from a Tiverton point of view.

Let´s not dwell on it. Let´s talk about other things...

The sea is probably boiling hot because of global warming, though one might expect the short term consequence of that comparatively recent phenomenon (recent in relation to the life of Lewis Carroll) to have the opposite effect as the polar ice caps melted releasing water just above freezing point into the Oceans. It would only be later...aw, shucks...lets not talk about anything...

Exmouth Town: Simon Harris, Steve Jenkins, Neil Saunders, Martin Parker (Steve May, 51), Steve Taylor, Tom Gardner, Andy Widger, Sufyan Ghazghazi (Richard Pears, 51), Richard Spiller, Martin Douglas (Adam Faux, 62), Paul Pocock
Booked: Widger, Pears

Tiverton Town: Mark Ovendale, Jak Martin, Shaun Goff, Steve Winter, Tom Stocco (Rob Cousins, 46), Terry Skeggs (David Steele, 51), Dave Hallett, Dave Hambly, Paul Milsom, Kezie Ibe, Jamie Mudge (Jamie Densham, 67)
Booked: Winter, Densham

Referee: R Greenwood (Exeter)