Almost Giant Killing …

Due to a bit of luck I managed to snag a last minute ticket to watch the mighty Grecians (18th in league one - which is the 3rd tier of English football) play Forest (4th in the premier league). And what a cracking evening I had.

The game kicked of and to be honest I thought that City might be in for a long night (which it turned out to be), as Argyle had beaten Liverpool on Sunday, so Forest might want to avoid another Devon banana skin. Anyway after about 6 minutes City scored - the home fan went wild … I did think was to too early…

And sure enough Forest pulled it level after about 10 minutes, the n they went ahead at 37 minutes… the giant killing dream was fading…

But wait the tale isn’t over yet … 6 minutes into the second half the Grecians were level! Game on. It was frantic stuff, Exe trying to catch Forest on the break and nearly managing it just before the final whistle for full time. But also having to defend and block deep against faster, fitter and more skilled players. 

At the death of full time Exe had a debutant sent off for a straight red (a poor tackle by all accounts) and a clash with the Exe keeper laid out a Forest striker for 10 minutes. But Exe held on for extra time.

Extra time was tough as the 10 man Exeter team held off Forest from scoring for another 30 minutes.

We were onto penalties - my first (and probably only) penalty shootout at a ground. The Exe captain stepped up and scored the first penalty … unfortunately the next 2 Exe players missed theirs and Forest didn’t miss any. 

Forest go through 4-2 on penalties.

But the Grecians can hold their heads high, as they took a team 54 places higher than them all the way - a brilliant evening!

Morts