Team News: 

This game is likely to come too soon for John Akinde (knee) who is nearing full fitness following the injury picked up against Millwall in preseason. Jamie Stephens and Curtis Weston both remain side-lined with their knee injuries and will be so for a number of weeks.

Richard Brindley (foot) and Elliott Johnson (knee) both have long term injuries. Dave Tarpey was carried off on a stretcher early in Saturday’s match. He had a scan on his knee yesterday and we are awaiting results.

Andre Blackman will serve the second match of his three game suspension after being sent off at Swindon Town.

 

Last Time We Met:

Barnet travelled to Exeter in mid-April and lost 2-1 after conceding two very early goals.

The Grecians took the lead in the 4^th minute through Jordan Moore-Taylor who finished after a good move from David Wheeler and Reuben Reid.

They doubled their advantage just 2 minutes later. Jake Taylor played the ball to Wheeler who managed to just squeeze the ball past Jamie Stephens from just in front of the goal.

Ruben Bover and Harry Taylor both had efforts well saved before John Akinde reduced the arrears in the 69^th minute, smashing home from 10 yards.

 Vilhete was denied late one has Pym stood firm to help earn all three points for his side. The match was the last of Kevin Nugent’s tenure at The Hive.

 

Manager:

 

Paul Tisdale is the high-achieving and long-serving manager of Exeter City.

Tisdale’s first three seasons at Exeter transformed a club that had fallen out of the Football League. He inspired two successive promotions to lift City from the National Conference to League One.

The Grecians had noted his early progress as coach of university side Team Bath before making what turned out to be an astute appointment.

Paul, who joined Team Bath in 2000 after his playing days were prematurely ended by injury at 27, led the side to four promotions. He also took Bath to the first round proper of the FA Cup in 2002 as the first university team to enter the competition since 1881.

Exeter, too, made meteoric progress under Tisdale’s tutillage. They reached the Conference play-off final in his first season – 2006-07 – before being pipped for promotion by Morecambe.

Despite selling players to the value of more than £250,000, Tisdale continued to find recruits to fit a neat, passing style. Exeter returned to Wembley in 2008, this time winning their play-off showdown with Cambridge.

As one of only four promotion-winning managers in Exeter’s history, Tisdale attempted to repeat the success in League Two and guided them to second place with a final-day win at Rotherham.

More success followed for Tisdale and Exeter as he secured their League One status in 2009/10. The following campaign (2010/11), Tisdale once again improved his side’s position and were indeed in promotion contention, only to miss out on a play-off place by one point.

Malta-born Paul was a midfield product of Southampton’s youth system before embarking on a career that included spells in Finland and Greece. He was also played with Yeovil and Bristol City, from where he had a first taste of life with Exeter on loan.

He was named Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month for August after Exeter’s great start, which has seen them drop points in just one match. It is the first time in his 11 years at the club he picked up that honour.

 

Dangerman:

Striker Lee Holmes has already scored 2 in 7 so far this year. Last season he bagged 5 in 21, with 3 assists on top.

Lee signed for Exeter City on a permanent basis in the summer of 2015. He started his career with Derby County and made his breakthrough at Pride Park at the age of 15 making his debut for the Rams in December 2002. 

He turned down Leeds United and Nottingham Forest to sign for Southampton in summer 2008, and he would score against the Grecians in his second game for the Saints. Released in 2012 after loan spells at Oxford United and Swindon Town, he joined Preston North End, and would score six goals for the Deepdale club.  From there, we went on loan to Portsmouth and then Exeter City, signing permanent terms with the Grecians at the end of the 2014/15 season.

 

Last Time Out:

Exeter continued their unbeaten start with victory away to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday. Tisdale named an unchanged side going into the match at The New Lawn and took the lead early on through Pierce Sweeney.

Ruben Reid scored a brace to put the Grecians in full control. Forest Green pulled a goal back with 15 minutes to go but it proved to be no more than a consolation.

Exeter City: Pym, Sweeney, Woodman, James, Tillson, Holmes, Moore-Taylor, McAlinden (Stockley, 72), Taylor, Reid (Boateng, 79), Brown

Subs not used: Hamon, Archibald-Henville, Jay, Moxey, Edwards, Boateng

 

Ticket info:

All ticket information for matches at The Hive London can be found here.
Tickets can be purchased here.

Matchday Arrangements:

Home supporters –
Pecking Order and Legends Bar will be open this evening. Turnstiles open at 18:30.

The home ticket office will be open from 17:30.

Please note that Legends Bar is still undergoing renovation work and will be ready for our fixture vs Crawley Town. We thank you for your patience during the work.

Visiting supporters –
Bar 66 and turnstiles will be open from 18:30. The away ticket office, located behind the North Stand, will be open from 18:30.

Keep up with the game:

Full match commentary from every game is available on iFollow. If you are based outside the UK and Ireland, you can watch the match live on iFollow.

You can also get live match updates on Twitter throughout the afternoon. We are also on Facebook and will go behind the scenes on our Instagram.