Exeter preview

Tomorrow afternoon we welcome Exeter City and their supporters to Huish Park for what is, in the absence of Weymouth from the football league for the forseeable future, our local derby. Around 2,000 away fans will make the short journey up the M5 or the A30 on Saturday, let's hope that at least double that number turn up to support the home team, it could be embarrassing otherwise.

Mind, it wasn't that long ago that we would have taken 2,000-odd supporters on an away trip, ticket allocations permitting. These things tend to go in cycles. Four or five years ago we were on a roll - the FA Trophy win, the Conference title and then the division 4 title; and all on a diet of entertaining football fed by a charismatic manager. Exeter themselves have won 2 promotions in as many seasons, surprising themselves, one suspects, with their successful campaign last season. No wonder then that that they've sold their allocation tomorrow and an extra 600-odd tickets besides - let's see if they can do the same in 4 years time, when the novelty of division 3 football has worn off.

After the disappointment of last Tuesday's defeat at Leyton Orient it really is imperative that the Glovers bounce back with an improved performance at the very least tomorrow. It's still too early to be talking about 'must-win' games, but our appalling away form has so far not mattered inasmuch that our generally decent home form has papered over the cracks. However should our home form take a turn for the worse then we could find ourselves in real problems very quickly, hence the need for keeping up the momentum at Huish Park. What won't help the team right now is the likely state of the pitch. If it's anything like my back garden then it's going to be extremely spongy and wet and liable to cut up badly at the drop of a hat; none of which will help our passing game. The only crumb of comfort is that it won't do anything for Exeter's passing game either.

The bookies make the Glovers narrow favourites at 6/5 for tomorrow's game. The draw is priced at 23/10 and an Exeter win at 9/4. My head is telling me to put my money on the draw, but one of my unwritten rules is that whenever we are odds-against for a home win then that's what I've got to bet on. Accordingly my fiver's going on the home win. Running total: -£9.50p.

It'll be nice to see two former Glovers back at Huish Park tomorrow. Both Adam Stansfield and Marcus Stewart are expected to start for the Grecians tomorrow and both will, I'm sure, get a very good reception from the home fans. 'Lisa' was a popular member of the side that won the FA Trophy and then promotion to the football league and distinguished himself not only by scoring in the final at Villa Park but then going on to have a good swear in the post-match interviews, live on Sky TV. Marcus more recently was instrumental in being part of the side that consolidated our place in division 3 and of course scored THAT goal in that incredible night at the City Ground to win the play-off semi-final against Nottingham Forest. There's not much doubt (speaking in hindsight) that both players were released in error by the club and could and should have stayed with us longer than they did. Welcome back boys, please don't make us pay for past mistakes! Exeter's manager Paul Tisdale is of course also a former Glover, but no-one would pretend that the few games he played for us in the Conference over 10 years ago really made much of an impression on either him or us. Let's hope he continues in the same vein tomorrow.

Just read: The Gabble - and Other Stories by Neal Asher: Cracking selection of short stories set in Asher's Polity universe. Fills in nicely some of the gaps left in his longer fiction and fleshes out what we already knew about other characters, particularly the eponymous gabbleducks. This collection is actually a pretty good starting point for anyone not familiar with Asher's work - if you like these short stories you'll love his longer books.