Exeter City must stop Shrewsbury Town danger who ruined their Wembley dreams: View | OneFootball

John Marquis has already scored one big goal against Exeter City live on Sky Sports and Gary Caldwell needs a plan to stop him on Thursday.

John Marquis is no stranger to scoring important, devastating goals against Exeter City.

The former Portsmouth and Doncaster Rovers man has bagged four goals in 10 appearances against the Grecians over his long career.

He’s still only 32, but it feels like he’s been around since the turn of the century and his crowning glory against the Grecians came in what was Pompey’s ‘moment of the season’ back on the 18th of February 2020.

City fans can easily be forgiven for forgetting this apparently monumental moment in Portsmouth history, but it was the culmination of a thrilling match live on Sky Sports that sent the south-coast club to Wembley to lose to Salford City in the final of the competition now known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

The game in question was a pulsating 3-2 loss at Fratton Park for City, a match that saw a youthful, changed, side almost shock their hosts from the league above.

The visitors took the lead through Jake Taylor in the 78th minute before Pompey equalised four minutes from time, only for City to seemingly seal progression courtesy of an 89th-minute own goal.

Cameron McGeehan fired a deflected injury-time leveler, but Marquis then pounced to win it with a devastating 96th-minute back-post header.

Marquis kept Exeter from Wembley date

There was a funny atmosphere among Grecians heading into the match, with the vast majority boycotting the Leasing.com and, frankly, not wanting to have to face the dilemma of whether to go to Wembley for this competition.

City had lost the 2016/17 and 2017/18 League Two play-off finals there, but worse was yet to come as Covid hit a month after the clash at Fratton Park and Matt Taylor’s Reds would go on to suffer a 4-0 battering at the hands of Northampton Town in a mercifully, behind-closed-doors 2019/20 play-off final.

Imagine if we had to go and watch City lose at Wembley four times in four seasons and twice within the space of a few months?

However, the Grecians had already beaten Salford in League Two action that season, so they would have fancied their chances of success and the final would have brought in a decent amount of cash into the coffers as well.

But, thanks to Marquis’ header, it wasn’t to be, and it’s a little moment of history between the striker and a club he’s never played for.

Exeter City going well in League One

Fast-forward to today and Exeter are going superbly in League One.

Next up for Gary Caldwell’s crew is Thursday’s trip to Shrewsbury Town live on Sky Sports, where Marquis will be looking to dish out some more pain.

A couple of weeks ago, we suggested City might be targeting their fifth-successive clean sheet in a row with rock-bottom Cambridge United and the Salop coming up next.

Both were in the bottom two at the time and both were averaging below a goal a game. The U's were duly dispatched 1-0 at home, and you fancied something similar in the second of those two games.

However, Shrewsbury have burst into life of late and, while most of the league were lamenting the international break, Thursday’s opponents were busy battering Crawley Town 5-3 on Saturday.

That result was sure to perk up a few around the Cat and Fiddle and that man, Marquis, was on hand to fire a match-winning double.

He’s had a strange time at New Meadow since joining over the summer and Saturday’s win over Crawley was his first 90 minutes of the season and only the second time he’s played any serious part since August 27th.

He’s clearly got a point to prove, and he also picked up an assist at the weekend. City’s defence has been fantastic this season, and they'll be in high spirits, looking for their sixth clean sheet in seven games in all competitions.

But with Salop bagging five goals last time out, this game has a different complexion and suddenly feels a lot trickier.

Caldwell and his backroom staff will have a carefully-curated plan for this game, and you have to trust the players to implement it well based on the season so far.

Marquis might not have featured too highly in that planning just a couple of weeks ago but with his good record against City and sudden return to form, keeping the London-born hitman quiet will be key to picking up more points and keeping early-season momentum going.

If they can keep the newly-rejuvenated Marquis and co quiet on Thursday night you'd back City to pinch one at the other end and move into fourth ahead of the weekend's fixtures.

It would be getting towards nose-bleed time and dreams of a top-half finish in this tricky-looking League One could even start to look a little under ambitious.