The Grecians Are Coming! | OneFootball

A look at a first ever clash between City and Exeter, plus the links between the two clubs and potted history of the Devon side also known as 'The Grecians'…

It’s fitting that in Exeter City’s 125th year of existence, finally, they meet Manchester City for the first time.

It’s incredible that the two clubs have never met in any competition in all those years and there are only a handful of sides that both clubs are still to play in the league pyramid.

But on Saturday, 10 January at 15:00 (UK), all that changes.

And backed by 8,000 travelling Devonians, at long last The Grecians are, indeed, coming.

There have been several connections between the two teams over the years, and also a couple of pre-season friendlies, but the links pretty much end there and a new chapter of history starts with our FA Cup third round meeting this weekend.

Martin Weiler, Trustee of the Exeter City Football Club museum on a recent visit to the Etihad

Who better, then, than Trustee of the Exeter City Football Club Museum, Martin Weiler, to share a bit of The Grecians’ fascinating history – and reveal what a first trip to the Etihad means to the Devon outfit?

“Drawing Manchester City leaves us with just two clubs we’ve never faced out of the current 92 league clubs,” begins Weiler.

“We have never played Arsenal before and the other is Bromley, but that’s because they only recently became a league side.

“From a historical perspective, drawing City in the FA Cup is a tremendous tie for us as we tick off another team we have never met competitively.”

Last season, City were paired with another Devon side – in the fifth round – as we took on Exeter’s fierce rivals Plymouth Argyle.

The ‘Big Bank’ at St James Park - the largest standing terrace in English football

And while we have faced The Pilgrims many times over the years, they remained our only played Devonian opposition until the third round draw was made last month – so has the prospect of a trip to a sell-out Etihad been well received by Exeter fans?

“Everyone’s very excited,” says Weiler.

“I think at the third round stage, you either want a lowly side at home to give you a chance of progressing and gaining more prize money or get a standout away fixture – and Manchester City ticks a lot of boxes.

“The fact we’ve never met before, the status of Manchester City and the Etihad Stadium are all reasons to be excited for our fans – that plus that it is almost exactly 20 years since we travelled up in our thousands to Old Trafford  when we played Manchester United as a non-League club and famously held them to a 0-0 draw.

“We have a lot of happy memories of Manchester! We lost the replay 2-0 at St James’ Park and Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t make the same mistake of fielding an inexperienced side in that game because the scorers were Ronaldo and Rooney!”

Aerial view of St James Park as it looked when City visited in 1996

So, what of the connections mentioned earlier? While there aren’t many, there are a few notable links…

“We have beaten Manchester City!” says Weiler.

“On 7 May 1991, City kindly sent a team down for a testimonial for one of our players, Steve Neville, and we won the game 1-0 in front of 3,466.

“One of the strongest connections between our two clubs – of course – is Alan Ball.

“He was our manager from 1991 to 1994, and he then took over at City from 1995 to 1996.

“Ball brought his City team to St James’ Park on 8 August 1996, and Manchester City won that game 3-1 in front of an even bigger crowd of 5,314 that day.

Alan Ball (left) and Martin Phillips while at Exeter City (right)

“He famously signed our young winger Martin ‘Buster’ Phillips in 1995 for £500,000 and that money was most welcome, but I think he claimed Buster would become the first £10million footballer.”

Sadly, Buster Phillips’ time at City was a largely unhappy one, with just 15 appearances during a three-year stay, which included brief loan spells at Scunthorpe and a return to Exeter.

Perhaps the weight of expectation placed on his young shoulders was too much, with Ball’s lofty prediction probably doing the 18-year-old no favours.

Phillips remained Exeter’s record outgoing transfer for many years until Matt Grimes and later Ollie Watkins were sold for higher transfer fees.

David Oldfield, who played for the Blues between 1989 and 1990 and made 30 appearances, is also The Grecians’ current youth team manager.

Ex-City striker David Oldfield , now Under-18s coach at Exeter City

Backed by 8,000 this weekend, have Exeter City fans travelled in such numbers many times before? It seems they have…

“We played Liverpool in a FA Cup replay 2016 and took several thousand to Anfield – this after a 2-2 draw at St James Park where they played a depleted side.

“We also travelled in big numbers for that game at Old Trafford in 2006 – it’s an odd fact that we were one of the few clubs never to play at the old Wembley Stadium, but we have had already played at the new Wembley five times and obviously we took thousands there on each occasion as well – bar during COVID when nobody went!”

Exeter City have a fascinating backstory, aside from never meeting City or Arsenal previously – not least the connection between world famous spoon-bending mystic Uri Geller and having superstar Michael Jackson speak at St James Park for a special ticketed event.

The question has to be – how come?

“There are so many myths about Uri Geller and Exeter City,” says Weiler.

“I don’t think he ever had a registered position at the club, it was more of an honorary title. We had a dreadful time between 2002 and 2003 under the ownership who ran the club into the ground.

“They did things like bringing Uri in and inviting Michael Jackson to visit the club – it was rumoured the Uri connection was because his son believed he had a previous life where he’d been born in Exeter back in the Middle Ages - but I can't confirm that is a fact!

Michael Jackson drops in for a visit - as you do! Uri Geller pictured far right and magician David Blaine on the far left

“David Blaine was there that day, too and many of our fans refer to that time as the 'circus period' which of course ended badly for us because we were relegated from the Football League – but out of those embers came something special because the fledgling Exeter City Supporters’ Trust then bought the majority shareholding of the club and we are now one of only two supporter-owned clubs in the Football League, AFC Wimbledon being the other.

“Most people would say we are punching above our weight with the finances we have, which is why a tie like Manchester City and an unbudgeted cash windfall is so vital to our football club.

“Manchester City is a different beast than we’re used to  - we are going to watch one of the giants of the modern game in a stadium that holds 52,000, so that makes it a very special occasion for our players and fans.”

And on Saturday, if you hear the Exeter fans singing ‘Have you ever played Brazil?’ don’t be surprised.

Ironically, City supporters used to sing ‘It’s just like watching Brazil’ many years ago because of the silky football being played at the time, but what is Exeter’s  Brazilian connection?

Weiler reveals a quite fantastic bit of history that no other English club can claim…

Exeter take on Brazil in Rio (1914)

“There is an FA Cup link to this story,” he begins. “It goes all the way back to 1914 when we drew Portsmouth away in the FA Cup and beat them 4-0. Then we played Aston Villa who were the cup holders and narrowly lost that game.

“Our cup exploits meant that when the FA were looking for an English club to tour Argentina, they offered Exeter City the opportunity – which we accepted – and so our players and officials left by ship for South America, stopping in Brazil along the way.

“While there,  the local clubs got to hear about Exeter’s trip and asked if the team would play some friendlies on our return from Argentina?

“So, after eight games in Argentina, we returned to play three games in Rio and, amazingly, the last of those games was against the national team of Brazil who had never collectively played an opponent before – so Brazil’s first ever game was against Exeter City!

“100 years later, we were invited back to play in the same stadium, and the ground was still there and part of the Fluminense museum has a dedicated section to Exeter City. So if you hear the chant, ‘Have you ever played Brazil?’, that’s why!”

Lastly, the nickname – The Grecians – where does that come from?

“It’s down to the area the club is based in,” says Weiler. “Originally, the club was called St Sidwell’s United and people in  St Sidwell’s used to refer to themselves as Greeks or Grecians  going back hundreds of years, so it was an unusual but obvious nickname for our football club."

Back to this weekend and Weiler admits the Exeter fans are hoping for a memorable day, whatever the result.

“We don’t have any expectations of how City will line up," he says.

"I hope we leave Manchester with your fans thinking our supporters and players have done our club proud - which I'm sure will happen - and we gave Pep Guardiola’s side a real game.”

This historic first meeting will hopefully make lasting bonds between our two clubs…

Feature: David Clayton

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