GARY’S SO IMPRESSED WITH GUTSY GRECIANS…
PUMPED: Exeter’s Josh Magennis celebrates
GRECIA PROUD Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell saluted a ‘heroic effort’ after his gallant players took Nottingham Forest all the way to penalties in the FA Cup fourth round.
In Tuesday’s final tie of the round, Josh Magennis gave the League One side the lead from close-range in the fifth minute. However, Premier League high-flyers Forest appeared to be in control when Ramon Sosa and Taiwo Awoniyi struck before the break.
An inspired Magennis pulled the Grecians level five minutes into the second
Ipswich Town Women will return to the top of the FAWNL Southern Premier League if they beat third-placed Exeter City at the Martello Stadium in Felixstowe this afternoon (KO 2pm).
Joe Sheehan’s side go into the match three points behind leaders Hashtag United with three games in hand and with the Essex side not in action today.
The Blues have a far superior goal difference and a second home win in five days, they beat Billericay 5-0 on Wednesday, would be enough to see them back to the summit.
A big crowd is expected to cheer on Sheehan’s team against the Grecians, who are three points behind Town but also having played three games more than the Blues.
Earlier in the season, Town drew 2-2 at Exeter in the league before winning 3-1 at St James Park in round one of the FAWNL Cup.
“We’re looking forward to our second home game in a week,” Sheehan told the club site.
“We expect this to be a really challenging fixture against one of very few teams that have taken a point from us this season.
“On both occasions we played them, we didn’t show the best versions of ourselves. This Sunday is an opportunity to perform a lot better than we did in our previous two matches against them.
“We are as prepared as can be and want to embrace the challenge Exeter will bring.”
Southampton manager Ivan Juric has expressed his disappointment with former Blues midfielder Flynn Downes’s attitude.
Downes joined the Saints on a permanent basis from West Ham in the summer following a loan spell last season but has been out-of-favour recently having been a mainstay of former boss Russell Martin’s side.
Town also made an offer to Downes in the close season and, as revealed earlier in the week, Southampton were unwilling to allow the 26-year-old to move to a relegation rival during this window.
Downes was left out of the squad for the game against the Blues a week ago when Juric said there had been “some problems” with the Town academy product in the days leading up to the game.
The Brentwood-born schemer was again absent for today’s FA Cup tie against Burnley at St Mary’s, which the Championship side won 1-0.
“Things happen in the window,” Juric told BBC Radio Solent. “We have a lot of professional players. Sometimes players make mistakes. It’s an ugly situation because his attitude was not good. It’s a little bit of a club problem and we’ll see now.
“We have [Jan] Bednarek who refused a big offer for his life to a big club and was always training and playing the games and that’s what i expect from all players.”
The Croat manager added: “It’s a bad situation, I think that sometimes when a market window happens, things that you don’t want happen.
“Now we have to think about how to resolve the problem, but I have to say I was a little bit disappointed.
“It’s not unusual. They do not do things correctly like you have to do. What is important is to put on the T-shirt, go to the training and train hard.
“Then you can disagree with the coach or with the club or with everybody. What is important is training hard, playing hard and then everything is resolvable.”
