That victory was also our 6th in a row, setting a new club record. We sold 225 season tickets for this year, a massive increase over last season's 75.
vs Stockport (24th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Stevland Angus
DC Tom Sharpe
DC Andrew Burns
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Dale Binns
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman
Short rest, so it's a makeshift lineup out there.
10 - Hard to believe they missed that one.
13 - Yellow for
Sharpe
37 -
Crocombe has been playing his ass off this game in my view, but we haven't had any offensive highlights until this one.
Gracco kicks it back to
Solkhon who plants it in the box for
Wickham. I'm stunned to see our defensive midfielder up so high, but he sends it in, so it's all good.
1-0
Feels like we should be playing better.
Guedioura and
Sanchez on for the tired
Yeoman and
Burns
68 -
Sharpe has been awful this half and nearly costs us the lead when he gets dispossessed and outrun. But what gets the note here is
Guedioura's having to go off with injury, and
Hammond in for him.
72 - Great counter goal by them.
1-1
88 - I forget who made the great tackle, but
Harris gets the loose ball and sends it to
Hammond. Lay-up is there for
Gracco to run and shoot, and we've the late lead!
2-1 and we drop into Contain mode.
Awful pass by
Wickham nearly made him the goat, but the whistle blows in time.
7+
Brett Solkhon - 7.9 (MoM)
Aaron Wickham - 7.9
Max Crocombe - 7.5
Gianluca Gracco - 7.4
And a whole lot of 7s. Another strong game, and we've opened play 2-0-0, which presently has 5th, or promotion playoff spot.
We finally have a backup goalie in 18 year old
Liam Priestly. He's got considerable potential, but he's not there yet, being quite raw. Costing me $10.25k, which is a lot more than I want to spend for a backup, but oh well.
@Newport County (4th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Samuel Bangura
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Izak Reid
DM Taylor Parmenter
DM Ryan Woodford
ML Callum McNish
MR Courtney Harris
ST Gianluca Gracco
ST Ashley Yeoman
Don't see us winning this one, but you never know.
27 -
Reid gets the ball back after throwing it in and launches a high meteor to the six yard box, where
Gracco uses his amazing leaping powers to outhustle everyone and knock it on in. That's 3 straight games our Italian man has scored.
1-0
34 -
Harris plays a dynamite ball for
Yeoman who applies the fiery finish and we're just unstoppable at the moment.
2-0
Incredible first half, but
Yeoman and
Reid are looking tired, so it's
Taaffe and
Burns on.
Reid's pissed at having to sit and my talk about how we're playing well. Seriously dude, just shut the fuck up already. Everyone knows you hate it here, you fucking crybaby.
46 - I can forgive
Gracco his misses at easy goals for now, simply because he's been productive.
48 - Disallowed goal that I saw coming because
Harris was offsides. Too bad.
69 - Well, now they missed a should have scored, so it's all equal.
73 - That's the second poor pass
Crocombe's had this game, and they miss another open shot. OTOH, our Kiwi keeper's made some incredible stops that made me say wow.
Minimum 7 for everyone bar
Lewis Taaffe, whose shitty 6.1 I can forgive because he's coming off injury of his own and is being thrust into a setup likely entirely different from what he's faced before.
7.5+ Ratings
Gianluca Gracco - 8.2 (MoM)
Ashley Yeoman - 7.6
Sergio Sanchez - 7.6
That win moves us up to 2nd place, as only
Exeter has also won its first three games. Crazy. Never would have imagined us starting this well.