United 1
(McGavin 81′)
Exeter 0
A late strike from Brett McGavin steered United to victory in their final home pre-season friendly at Plainmoor on Saturday.
The first chance fell the way of the men in yellow in the fourth minute, as Will Goodwin fed a rampaging Ryan Hanson, whose run took him into the left side of the penalty area before he sent a right-footed shot over the bar from a tight angle.
United continued to force the issue early on, with Ross Marshall just failing to connect with McGavin’s free-kick five minutes later.
Marshall displayed his quality at the other end soon after, making a superb near-post intervention to prevent Jack Sparkes’ driven cross reaching a City attacker behind him.
Things quietened down a bit thereafter, although had Goodwin’s through-ball been directed just a little closer to Corie Andrews, Gary Johnson’s side could well have been a goal up in the 28th minute. McGavin tried his best to put that right following a misplaced ball out from the back in the very next passage of play, however his strike from 20 yards failed to seriously test Scott Brown in the City goal.
Despite the home side clearly being in the ascendancy, Mark Halstead did make an excellent near post block to keep out Tim Dieng’s header from Jack Caprice’s right-wing cross.
Exeter began to rouse themselves, with Halstead once again called into action in the 31st minute, spreading himself excellently to deny Sam Nombe from twelve yards.
Torquay were still well in it, but they could have fallen behind on 43 minutes, had Halstead not pulled off an absolutely world-class save to tip Nombe’s header header onto the crossbar from three yards out, as another Sparkes cross from the left threatened to undo the hosts.
Goalless at the break though.
The second period began in a similar fashion to how the first ended, with United’s goalkeeper producing another fine piece of goalkeeping to thwart first Dieng, then Nombe from close range, although an Assistant’s flag ultimately would have ruled out the latter’s effort.
Halstead was clearly enjoying himself, and when Pierce Sweeney’s cross found the head of Dieng at the backpost on the hour mark, the fact that he produced another superb save at point-blank range was now becoming merely part of the script.
United stood up to the test though, and in the 75th minute, Torquay skipper Dean Moxey – against the club where he made his name – fired in an inviting cross that Goodwin came within inches of connecting with inside the six-yard box.
That sparked a sustained spell of pressure from Johnson’s side, and with nine minutes remaining, they finally broke the deadlock.
Having picked himself up from a foul 20 yards out, Kieron Evans’ flighted free-kick nearly saw Moxey head home, yet with the half-clearance falling at a nice height for McGavin on the edge of the area, the midfielder took aim and fired home a cool volley past Brown to put The Gulls ahead.
Those in yellow soaked up every else that City had left in them, with the last threat to United’s goal seeing Halstead rise – fittingly – above all comers to take a brave catch.
Just a taster, but a nice one at that!
United: 1. Mark Halstead, 2. Dylan Crowe, 5. Ali Omar, 6. Ross Marshall, 7. Ryan Hanson, 10. Corie Andrews (18. Olaf Koszela, 88′), 11. Kieron Evans, 14. Brett McGavin, 16. Shaun Donnellan (26. Trialist A, HT), 19. Will Goodwin, 21. Dean Moxey (c).
Exeter starting XI: Scott Brown, Jack Caprice, Pierce Sweeney, Sam Stubbs, Jonathan Grounds, Jack Sparkes, Archie Collins, Tim Dieng, Josh Coley, Matt Jay (c), Sam Nombe.
SUBS: Harry Lee, Alfie Pond, Cheick Diabate, Alex Hartridge, Pedro Borges, Alfie Clark, Nelson Iseguan.
Yellow Cards: Sweeney 8′, Coley 79′
Attendance: 2,634 (911 away)