Coming up: Exeter City

The drop

It's Football Christmas Day! Is there a football fan in the country that doesn't love Boxing Day? There's a real sense of togetherness, family and friends, some coming to their only game of the season, coming with a sense of collective excitement. 

This is a game that sells itself, and it is probably a good thing that the club haven't put in the effort they has in the past - I'm thinking of the disappointments of Plymouth and Woking. We need to approach it, as much as possible, as a normal game. 

Last week's defeat to Wycombe and the announcement that Mark Ashton is leaving the club has added weight to the game. I would love us to put on a show against Exeter, and then again against Swansea in the Cup, but there's a piece of me that just wants all this period of the season to be over as soon as possible so we can get our heads down and really deal with the issue of promotion in May.

Old game of the day 

Deep down I still feel a certain animosity towards Exeter who 'stole' our place in the Football League in 2007. It's funny how things play tricks on your mind. Looking through this (recorded in a form which appears to be about 13 grades down from HD), we went into the second leg a goal up, went two goals up, conceded our lead, allowed Rob Duffy to roll the ball harmlessly into their keepers' arms when clean through in extra time and then our goalkeeper tried to 'right the wrong' of our relegation by taking a penalty. He missed, of course. Suicide.