We’re brimming with confidence right now and want another win

PIERCE SWEENEY IS THE CLUB CAPTAIN OF EXETER CITY FC

By the time you read this, I’ll have turned 30. I appreciate an awful lot of people will assume this landmark occurred some time ago, but in actual fact it was only on Wednesday of this week that I reached the big 3-0.

So, while I was disappointed that Saturday’s game against Birmingham City was postponed because of international call-ups, it did at least give me the opportunity to dash back to Ireland for a few days and celebrate with friends and family.

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As you might imagine, those celebrations involved watching Saturday’s game between the Republic of Ireland and England on the TV. Unfortunately, as an Irishman, it didn’t make for easy viewing. England have some fantastic players – including one or two who once enjoyed a brief flirtation with the Emerald Isle! – and, plainly, we’re just not at their level right now.

It will be interesting to see what happens under our new manager Heimir Hallgrimsson, who, I’m sure you’ll recall, was joint head coach of his native Iceland when they stunned England to reach the quarter-finals at Euro 2016! However, it seems to me a number of those who featured at the Aviva Stadium are probably nearing the end of their international careers and an injection of fresh blood is needed.

Of course, that can’t be said of my former Exeter City teammates Dara O’Shea and Chiedozie Ogbene, both of whom I thought performed with credit at the weekend. Coincidentally, aside from playing together for Ireland, Dara and Chiedozie were both on loan at Exeter during the 2018-19 season and have now been reunited in the Premier League at Ipswich Town.

It’s great to see that they’ve realised the potential that was evident in their time at SJP and are now regular starters at Premier League and international level. As a former team-mate, it makes me very proud to see what they’ve gone on to achieve.

While I haven’t spoken to Chiedozie since we lined up against his former club, Luton Town, in the third round of last year’s Carabao Cup, Dara is one of a long list of former teammates with whom I’ve remained in touch after they left SJP for pastures new.

As regular readers of this column will know, former City skipper Jake Taylor is one of my best pals and we’ll take our friendship to the grave – in the meantime, the two of us continue to talk three or four times a week. Aside from Jake, off the top of my head, I remain in fairly regular contact with are Cam Dawson, MJ [Matt Jay], Lloyd James, Nicky Law, Lee Martin and Jayden Stockley, while it’s always a good giggle when Reuben Reid and I get to catch up.

After our fantastic win against Bolton, it was important to maintain our momentum when we took on Swindon in the Football League Trophy last Tuesday, so we were pleased to win 2-1. Ed Francis set us on our way with his first goal for the club after 65 minutes, only for the visitors to nick an equaliser just two or three minutes later. Fortunately, Jack Aitchison came to our rescue with a fantastic solo goal in the 81st minute.

I must admit I didn’t realise until some time afterwards that it was Jack’s first goal for the club at SJP – for sure, it was [almost] worth the wait, it’s only a shame that such a great goal occurred in front of a deserted big bank. Let’s hope that, like buses, now Aitch has bagged his first goal at the Park, others will quickly follow.

The Football League Trophy offers a great opportunity to blood some youngsters and to give one or two of those who, for whatever reason, have been on the periphery some game time. Nineteen-year-old Ed James didn’t look out of place in the centre of defence, while Liam Oates, 17, produced a man-of-the-match performance in midfield.

In all honesty, Oakesy’s progress has come a bit out of the blue to me. I’m sure the coaching staff knew all about him, but I hadn’t seen a great deal of him before he started training with the first team squad a day or two before the Tiverton game in pre-season. Be that as it may, it soon became apparent he’s a very talented youngster, who has quality on the ball and isn’t afraid to get stuck in.

The same could be said of 15-year-old Louie Cayless, who became the club’s second youngest player [behind Ben Chrisene] when coming on for the final five minutes of the Swindon game. I understand Louie is a month younger than a certain Ethan Ampadu and, while it’s early days, I see a bit of Amps in Louie. For sure, I wouldn’t be at all surprised were he to become a regular name on the teamsheet within the next two to three years.

We’re back in League One action on Saturday when we make the long trip to Blackpool. A slow start to the season, with just two points from their first four games, saw the Tangerines part company with manager Neil Critchley, who has been replaced by Steve Bruce.

I can’t imagine the vastly experienced Bruce would have taken the job if he thought Blackpool were going to be scratching around at the wrong end of League One for too long and, having narrowly missed out on the play-offs in 2023-24, I’d expect them to start climbing the table sooner rather than later.

That said, we’re brimming with confidence right now and will travel to the North West looking for all three points. Certainly, if we perform as we did against Bolton in our last League One outing, I see no reason why we can’t bag a second successive away victory.

Touch wood, one or two of those who missed the game at Bolton’s Toughsheet Community Stadium will be back in contention for Saturday. Caleb Watts came through 45 minutes against Swindon unscathed while Jay Bird, who came off the bench for his City debut in the same game, has been back in full training this week.

With six points from our opening four games, we’ve made a solid start to the League One season. However, nine points from our opening five games would be better still and set us up nicely for Stevenage’s visit to SJP on Saturday week.