There's plenty to look forward to at Exeter City this season

Julian Tagg is the Club president and director of external affairs of Exeter City FC

It’s been great to get back to match action after the international break, which saw three of our squad playing for their home countries and our game against Birmingham postponed. If you caught the Birmingham-Wrexham match on Sky, then you’ll see why these are the big boys of the league and, with their huge budgets, they are going to be tough nuts to crack!

There was disappointment at Blackpool, with a late – 94th minute – winner from the home side, but at least we’ve broken the ‘Blackpool curse’ and scored at Bloomfield Park for the first time since 1979, thanks to Ed Francis’ goal. Next time lads, next time…

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We were back to SJP on Saturday which saw a cracking game and 2-0 victory over Stevenage, putting us nicely in the middle of the table, although of course, it’s very early days. This time last season we were top of the table, and you all know how that went!

I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen Sweenz take as many shots as he did during the Stevenage match. It may have been because his mum was there, who I got to meet that night at, I think it was his 40th, birthday party at Woodbury Park! The place was full, so he must have hired in some friends.

It was great to see Jake Taylor, Tis and Julia there. In fact, it was Tis who originally signed Pierce. I’m not sure if we’re ready to forgive him yet! It was also great to see Perks and all the players there, although apparently Gary wasn’t invited – look out for line-up changes next week!

Back to SJP, Chaz does a great job of keeping our pitches in tip-top condition, and this last week he’s had an apprentice – a certain Owen Caldwell, who was here with his dad and got stuck in to help us. Apparently, he’s a mowing mean-machine!

Someone who’s absolutely flying at the moment is a certain young Jay Stansfield, what a player he is becoming. A £15million move from Fulham to Birmingham will benefit us here in Exeter. It’s fantastic news, but as ever not as straightforward as it seems. The payments will be phased, and we might even end up paying more tax in the first year, which just seems ridiculous. But it’s good news, and what’s also great to see is young Stanno scoring goals for fun for the Blues.

Over at ECFC women, they’ve made a brilliant start to the season, winning three, drawing one and only losing one of their first five matches to put them second in the FA Women’s National League South. And the team’s manager Abbie was awarded manager of the month for August – not a bad way to start off your first few weeks in the third tier of women’s football!

Over at Exeter City Community Trust, the club’s partner charity, they’ve launched their new season of running events. It starts with the Halloween five- and 10-mile races on October 27, which are swiftly followed by the City Centre Santa Run on December 1.

Both are fantastic family events and profits contribute to the charity’s work in the community, so you can take part knowing that you’re doing yourself good and helping other people…win win!

The Exeter City Community Fund is raising money for six local charities again this year. At the end of last season we divided £20,000 between the six groups. One of those was the male mental health support charity Alright Mate? CIC, who used their allocation to fund a unique comedy course, giving men the chance to develop their comedy skills and put on a short stand up routine.

The course begins this week and you can find out details on their website. If anyone’s ever heard my jokes in the Heritage Lounge, they’ll be signing me up for sure!

Here’s one from this weekend – our match sponsors were SWM Recycling – I presumed they must be ex-military, because there was a big sign on their wall saying ‘General Waste’…

Another organisation we support at Exeter City, and have done for a number of years, is Her Game Too. The movement, which was founded by a group of female fans and aims to tackle sexism and inequality in football and make it a more inclusive environment.

If you’ve ever been to a City match you’ll know that it’s a pretty inclusive and welcoming place, but as always we can do more, so the club is dedicating the men’s and women’s double header (against Cambridge and Billericay) at SJP on Saturday October 5 to Her Game Too. And if you buy a ticket for the men’s game, you get £2 off the women’s game the following day – and a double dose of football!

Looking ahead, following the Billericay match, the women are off down the road to face Argyle Women on October 9 and up to Cheltenham on October 13. And for the men, we’ve got two away trips to Wigan and Leyton Orient and then it’s back to SJP for a couple of games, which include that Cambridge match on October 5, followed by Mansfield Town on October 12. See you at SJP soon. Up the City!