Jourdan

Do teams never get promoted and overachieve the following season? Is such a phenomenon exclusive to League 1? Didn’t Sheffield United and Wolves not long ago finish in the top half of the PL following promotion? If it’s possible in the PL, why should we be surprised to see it in League 1 where the margins are much finer?

I am sorry but how is us possibly getting promoted to the Championship under Warne in any way comparable to us getting promoted to the PL the previous time over 15 years ago? In 2008, the board and the manager were reportedly at odds and the board were seemingly unwilling to invest in summer 2008 to improve the team sufficiently. We couldn’t compete with the other promoted sides never mind the 17 others. The step up to the PL was huge back then. Is the step up to the Championship really anywhere close to that? Consider that Clowes appears to be nothing but in full support of Warne and consider that once the restrictions are lifted and with the additional revenue streams to follow from promotion, we’d be able to compete financially with anyone else who gets promoted and probably around 6-10 other Championship clubs as a fair estimate. Surely that’s a far better place to be in? What’s there to stop us from improving and adapting to the Championship well? Not only footballing sides do it. Luton and Coventry did it. In fact, if you look at Wigan, Barnsley, Peterborough and Blackpool as recent reoccurrences, it’s footballing sides who more often tend to go back where they came from. This fearmongering is outrageous.

I watched Ipswich, Plymouth and Wednesday against us last season and I didn’t feel they were massively ahead of us in terms of quality, but granted I missed Ipswich at home at a time when they were really motoring. All of the games I saw were tight and decided on fine margins. Better they were, but not by much. I think where all three teams were better than us was at maintaining their consistency levels and being able to finish strongly. Is this year as good? It’s impossible to objectively quantify and everyone’s opinion will be different. Personally I think it’s at the same level in terms of difficulty and competitiveness and if you look back to the same time last season, the table is trending in a similar way.

Meaningless corporate waffle? Sure, yes, I report back to Stephen Pearce every evening. The point being discussed was that we are only where we are because the league is poor. If that was true, why aren’t Bolton, Barnsley and Peterborough taking advantage and running away with the league? What makes a league strong or weak, much like what makes a football team good to watch, is purely subjective. It was 2014-15 the last time none of the relegated teams competed for promotion or play-offs. What is the relevance? This season, only Blackpool have an outside chance of promotion through the play offs. Maybe I am looking at it the wrong way but that just lines up with the thinking that this is not a straightforward league to get out of. There are countless other examples of relegated teams (Bolton, Ipswich, Wednesday, Charlton, Sunderland) who have not adjusted to League 1 so easily and there are teams that have taken years to rebuild and get out of the league. Some are still stuck here. But yes, please continue downplaying the quality and competition levels in the league if you must. It won’t stop the champagne flowing when we go up.

FYI for anyone in and around Exeter today and tomorrow: Good pubs Ship Inn, Turk’s Head, White Hart, Old Firehouse, Mill on the Exe, Prospect Inn on the Quay Good cafes Exploding Bakery, Zuki’s, Tiny Tasting Room, Chococo, Grow Coffee House, Eat on the Green Good fast food Hubbox for burgers, Red Panda for Asian food, Hook for fish and chips, Eat the Bird for fried chicken Good restaurants The Ivy

Already spotted a few Rams in Exeter by the train station! Looking forward to tomorrow! Wishing everyone a safe journey. @S75 Ram and @Foreveram, any advice needed, just let me know!

Only garbage, in your opinion. We win games and people still want to drag Warne and the players over the coals. Are you still not pleased? We’ve gone from being 15 points off top to now potentially as little as three points if we win our game in hand. Which team at League 1 level will be without its faults or weaknesses? None. The key is finding a way to ensure your weaknesses are not regularly taken advantage of. We have lost two in 17, compared with five in 14 earlier in the season. We have won 12, compared with just 6 in that same earlier spell. So clearly while we are not perfect, we are doing something right in that regard. I go to as many games as I can. I watch as many games as I can. I’ll be there on Tuesday, for instance. I don’t feel depressed by the prospect. We might play badly and win. We might play well and lose. We might play badly and lose. We might play well and win. I couldn’t call it. It comes with the territory of supporting a team currently in League 1 and their typical limitations. You say it’s depressing. Would you be happier being in Peterborough’s position, losing their grip on their place in the automatic promotion race? Playing better football but losing 5-2 to struggling Wycombe?

A lot of this is unfounded though. You may have a horrible feeling about going up this season, but what actually happens when we do could be drastically different. There is no real rhyme or reason to what makes a club more likely to succeed in the Championship upon promotion, let’s be honest. Three teams go up and have the summer to lay the best possible groundwork. Some teams fight relegation, some teams stabilise and then some teams somehow find themselves battling for promotion. There are very rarely tell tale signs from the season before. Why is it Ipswich are in the promotion places this season - why have they adapted so much better than Wednesday and Plymouth who were separated by five points the previous year? Why is it Sunderland went from scraping their way up in the play-offs in League 1 in 2022 to finishing in the Championship top six in 2023? Why is it Luton and Coventry were able to stabilise themselves in the Championship and then challenge for promotion (and in Luton’s case actually get promoted) where other clubs didn’t? We all want long-term success for the club but it starts with short term success and taking an opportunity and not looking back. There is no perfect timing. We could sack Warne tomorrow, appoint a different manager, spend two years building the team in the fans’ vision and still go straight back down. We’ll never get anywhere if we are paralysed by the fear of what might be ahead. If we go up this season, we have to grab the opportunity with both hands and see where it takes us.

Exeter 1-2 Derby Collins

@Andicis it’s not just you, but you are the most recent culprit. I don’t get this constant need to discredit the league and the teams within in it. It’s league football and each league every season is tough in its own way. A new season brings change, new opportunities, new variables and also new challenges. You take it for what it is, surely? 46 games. 3 points for a win. You don’t get an extra special trophy for getting promoted one year over the other, do you? Shall we forget the open top bus parade, the medals, and the ticker tape because we are playing Blackpool, Reading, Northampton and Orient rather than Ipswich, Wednesday, Morecambe and Forest Green? Or shall we bow out of the promotion race altogether and wait to test ourselves against the might of QPR, Rotherham, Wednesday and Stockport? Eye test this, eye test that. The eye test will show some good and some bad, of course it will. We are currently League 1 level and everything points to that. Ultimately we are a work in progress. You may want to ignore it, you may want to qualify it, but there is progress nevertheless. Look at this season itself. We’ve gone from getting 21 points from 14 games earlier in the season and looking barely like a top half team, compared to 39 points from 17 games most recently and now being amongst the main contenders for promotion. Everyone wants to focus on the fact we are not Man City Lite. Everyone wants us to be more like Peterborough and Oxford (who are stuttering and seemingly slipping out of contention might I add). No-one wants to give Warne and the players credit for finding the belief, character, and consistency to turn the season around and no-one wants to give Warne and the players any credit for showing even more character and toughness to dig in and continue getting results to keep us in the hunt while those much-fabled footballing sides begin to fade. Yesterday could still be a very important point.

Judging by the reaction to this result, I think I’ll be all alone in the away end on Tuesday. It’s disappointing to drop two points, but as we have seen that’s the norm for sides in our position. Why some people think we should be above it is beyond me. Some people just fail to take any kind of perspective from the game. Look at the outpouring of anger after a draw. Can you imagine the reaction if we were getting hammered at home by Orient like Pompey were a few short weeks ago? Or getting whipped by Wycombe and conceding five like Peterborough today? I dread to think what it would be like if that was us. Every game is a potential trip hazard at this stage and teams will do their very best to disrupt us which it sounds like Shrewsbury did very well, similar to Cheltenham before them. Every team in the run in will look to do the same. Exeter on Tuesday will look to do a job on us too and it will be another tricky game to negotiate. We will do well to win. Every team in the mix will have games where they contrive to take a poor result from a winnable game. This time it was us. We have 15 games to play and there will be highs and lows, twists and turns, good performances and bad, good results and bad, but we have to stick by the team.

I am sure it will be fine as @bimmerman alluded to about the mingling and mixing. If it was Plymouth at home, different story. If you miss the train, I would walk back into the centre and book a taxi personally. Failing that, look into buses. The bus station is a short walk from the stadium, just off Sidwell St near the leisure centre. There are buses that go towards Alphington, Exwick and St. Thomas well past 10pm.

Look into the Falcon run by Stagecoach and Megabus. It’s a bus that runs between Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol and Bristol Airport. They have buses all through the night. It might be a good idea if trains are cancelled / missed.

The trouble you have is that the trains from St. James’ Park are very irregular in the evenings (20:20; 21:50, 22:50) so it all depends on how much additional time there is during the game and bear in mind, the trains will be busier than usual and normally on the branch lines, there are fewer carriages. If you want to get to St. Thomas and you miss that 21:50 train it might be a good idea to get a taxi. Apple Taxis is the local firm. You can also walk back into the city centre and you can get to the St. Thomas area by walking down Fore St (it starts at the end of High St at the junction with North St to the right and South St to the left) and when you reach the roundabout by the river take the road that runs to the right of the retail park with M&S and Next. However this would be a last resort.

It’s unreserved so you can stand where you want. However I would suggest if you want the best view, get to the ground a little earlier before it fills up and people get into position. We got to the ground with very little time to spare last time and we were stood towards one end near the touchline and it does affect your view of other parts of the pitch. We had to move at half time, but luckily we got a great view of McGoldrick’s double in the second half. So all in all it was a very enjoyable experience.

Derby 1-0 Shrewsbury Blackett Taylor

Any luck getting tickets, mate?

See you next Tuesday, folks. 🐏

1361 or thereabouts.

We were fine last year for tickets to both Plymouth and Exeter away. But now we’ve just won away again, we’re second, and the race is on, people may be more inclined to go and get a glimpse of our Gambian superstar.

I work in Exeter but live between Bodmin and Launceston. So if you need any tips on where to eat and drink on the day, give us a shout. I am going with my fiancée. You’ll probably be racing her down the A30.

Tickets are on sale to season ticket holders at the moment. No updates about selling out on the club’s social media channels. If any tickets are left, they go on general sale tomorrow at 10am. I suspect if any are available, it will be standing tickets. I am another Cornwall based Ram with an anxious wait. Fingers crossed for both of us. 🐏

It’s a gorgeous place, but absolutely it’s not a place for every budget. The hot chocolate was delicious and we won, so all’s well. 😁

This always looked like a massive trip hazard, so to grind out a win and keep a clean sheet should be a huge boost to Warne and the lads, especially given the results around us. The line up looked questionable, so credit to Warne after a job well done. It was also great to see some of Warne’s signings being involved in a crucial win after the recruitment came under fire. Hopefully there’s more to come from Bradley, Ward, Adams and Vickers. I was buzzing until my father-in-law took the celebratory drinks too far, ordered a £30 glass of whiskey, and didn’t flinch as I paid the bill. 😆

Have we scored yet? I want to order a celebratory £6 hot chocolate.