City 3 Uni 0 (streakers 7)
Plenty of skin on show as City beat the students
Town beat gown last night as Exeter City ran out 3-0 winners in the annual football varsity match.
Under the lights at St James’s Park Exeter, the Uni side put in a brave performance in front of a record varsity attendance of 3932 enthusiastic students.
And seven committed streakers ensured the record for varsity nudity was blown apart by half time.
In search of their first ever victory in the fifth annual match, and buoyed by last season’s narrow 3-2 loss, the Uni began sharply with an early chance falling to Matt Langley after some sloppy defending from City.
Urged on by boisterous support from the Big Bank, the Uni team were clearly psyched up for their biggest match of the year.
The students put together some good passing moves with Matthaus Marriot in particular showing impressive footwork. The left winger was later named man of the match.
In what was largely a lacklustre first half, the loudest cheer came for the first streaker of the night, who took to the pitch after just 15 minutes.
This sparked a succession of pitch invasions – including two scantily dressed female students – that were the highlight of a first half in which the Uni struggled in vain to break the deadlock.
During half time the traditional mass exodus to join the Timepiece queue was delayed significantly by an impressive routine from the Exeter cheerleaders.
Several changes were made by the Uni side after the break. One sub, striker Tom Lees, narrowly failed to get on the end of an early through ball once the match resumed.
The stalemate was broken early in the second half with City taking a 1-0 lead when an unlucky Andy Higgins could only turn a cross from the by-line into his own net.
The Uni were keen not to let conceding a goal dishearten them with Magnus Assmundson attempting to galvanise the team with an audacious long range effort.
However, as the half wore on the professional class of the opposition began to show.
City’s passing became increasingly slicker with as they dominated possession in midfield.
A succession of substitutions for the student side did little to prevent City going 2-0 up as the impressive Jacob Jagger Cane finished off a sharp move with a shot into the bottom right hand corner.
City increased their advantage five minutes later with a third goal from Ollie Watkins inside the six-yard box.
Despite the final score, the match spelt encouragement for a successful season for Exeter University Football, as they proved worthy competition for the League Two side.
The fixture was also a hugely successful night in raising money for both the Cardiomyopathy Association and the Adam Stansfield Foundation with a record attendance creating an electric atmosphere on the night.