Match report: Exeter City 2 - 1 Huddersfield Town

May 10 2010 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THIS was Exeter’s day, but Town’s could yet come at Wembley on May 29.

The final game of the regular League I campaign started well, with Gary Roberts claiming his side’s 100th goal in all competitions just 102 seconds in.

But Town failed to build on their bright start as Exeter claimed the victory that kept them in the division, and sent Gillingham down alongside already-relegated Wycombe, Southend and Stockport.

As manager Lee Clark said, it was a wake-up call, but the St James’s Park defeat was Town’s first in five games and only their second in 10 and should be kept in perspective.

Clark’s side have shown enough in the run which took them to the play-offs, and over the season as a whole, to suggest that they can go into their two-legged semi-final meeting with Millwall with every chance of booking a final showdown against Charlton or Swindon.

Exeter’s battle for survival and Town’s slim hope of sealing the second automatic promotion slot ultimately claimed by Leeds made for a tense atmosphere in drizzly Devon.

And home nerves in an 8,383 crowd (981 Town fans) were jangling after Roberts notched his ninth goal of the season.

A mix-up between defenders Matt Taylor and Richard Duffy presented the Town man with the ball on the edge of the penalty area and while keeper Paul Jones got a hand to the winger’s well-struck shot, he couldn’t prevent it popping up into the net.

Exeter, to their credit, kept their heads, and a run of five consecutive corners, starting in the 15th minute, signalled their intentions.

Town survived a handball claim against captain Peter Clarke when Ryan Taylor shot goalwards, and George Friend fired narrowly wide from distance before Matt Taylor made up for his earlier slip by heading home from Ryan Harley’s 22nd-minute corner.