WOOTTON AT THE DOUBLE AS THE HATTERS CRUISE PAST GRECIANS

By Robin Clark

EXETER CITY 0

EXETER: Whitworth 6, Turns 6 (Cox 64, 5), MacDonald 6, Hartridge 6, Niskanen 6, McMillan 5, Francis 6 (Cole 46, 5), Norwood 7, Moxon 6 (Collar 30, 6), Fevrier 6 (Knoyle 65, 6), Subs not used: Wogan, Connolly.

Att: 6,541 Rating: ★★★★★

STOCKPORT C 2

Wootton 2, 22

STOCKPORT: Addai 7, Hills 7, Horsfall 8, Pye 6, Touray 6, Purrington 6 (Woods 27, 5), Watts 6, Yogane 6 (Jones 46, 6 amond 7 (Powell 81), Wootton 8 (Cosgrove 81), Olaofe 7 (Bailey (Harper 55, 6)), Magennis 6. Subs not used: McDonald, Colwill. 65, 6).

Ref: Ben Speedie 7/10

STOCKPORT County manager Dave Challinor hailed Kyle Wootton, who scored a first-half brace to down Exeter City.

Wootton scored after 62 seconds and added a second after 22 minutes to secure victory.

“If you are on a bad run in terms of goalscoring, then probably the safest thing to do is to find yourself as far away from the goal as possible, but the reality is to get yourself as close to the goal as possible,” Challinor said. “That is where he scored his goals and I suppose that is when one becomes two, becomes three and you go on a run. Hopefully that is the case for him.

“It was a pretty routine win for us. Obviously we got off to a perfect start in terms of going in front and then we got the second goal, but if I am being ultra-critical, I would like more from us in the second half, in terms of control.”

County made a flying start to the game and were in front with just over a minute on the clock. A low cross by Tanto Olaofe was slammed against a post by Jayden Fevrier and as the ball ran loose on the goal line, Wootton smashed it in.

It was 2-0when the City defenders stopped, expecting an offside flag that was not forthcoming with Olaofe in acres of space. With the Grecians static, Olaofe strolled forward and rolled the ball on a plate for Wooton, who was left with another tap-in.

Exeter rarely threatened, but they did come close to pulling a goal back in first-half stoppage-time, but Josh Magennis headed wide from an Ed Francis cross.

Jack Diamond almost made it 3-0when he capital-alised on an Ed Turns error and waltzed in on goal, but Alex Hartridge came to Exeter’s rescue with a vital block.

County were content to see out the match in the second half with Exeter failing to register a shot on target in a dire second half, which left manager Gary Caldwell frustrated.

“We are better than that and we have showed that many times,” Caldwell said. “We just didn’t turn up at any point in the game. We gifted them a two-goal start and it was always going to be difficult against a team that is pushing for promotion.

“I take responsibility. I got the team wrong and we had been debating the team, so I accept my part in that, but too many players are having to do more. The very least we expect is competing, running, fighting – we were far too easy to play against.”