Exeter City’s Under-18s came away with two positive results last week, as the young Grecians defeated both Forest Green Rovers U18s and Cheltenham Town U18s in the space of just five days. 

Those two victories will give ECFC’s Head of Coaching, Brad-Lee Miller, and his young squad, plenty of encouragement following a recent run of inconsistent results and performances. 

Tuesday evening saw City’s youth side travel to the New Lawn to face FGR in round two of the FA Youth Cup. Exeter maintained their strong recent record in the competition with a positive display and a 3-0 victory. 

Striker George Spencer scored his fourth goal of this season’s cup run, when he rounded the Rovers goalkeeper in the first period. The visitors then secured their progression with two well-taken efforts from Pedro Borges and Mitch Beardmore. 

The Grecians will now face either Oxford United U18s or Horndean in round three. 

The forward momentum from City’s midweek exploits then transpired into Saturday’s home match with Cheltenham in the Youth Alliance South West division, despite having different personnel available and a younger match-day squad. 

A dominant first half by Miller’s men saw Spencer break the deadlock once again with a powerful strike from the edge of the box after half an hour. 

But back came Town, and they levelled matters on 65 minutes against the run of play to put the home team under some serious pressure. 

Exeter’s youngsters continued to fight until the very end, and as the clock ticked past the 90-minute mark, Alfie Cunningham blocked a clearance to divert the ball into an empty net to hand his side the lead once again. 

In the third minute of injury time, Spencer scored another to seal the win, despite the opposition netting once more with the final play of the game for 3-2. 

Miller will be hoping these two victories lift the Under-18 group, which will, in turn, hopefully, see the Devonians progress further into the FA Youth Cup, and climb up the league standings in the lead-up to the Christmas break. 

At the senior level, Exeter City had to admit defeat at home to a powerful Ipswich Town side in front of the TV cameras on Saturday. 

The Grecians started brightly enough but Ipswich began to demonstrate their power, and the reason they are chasing Plymouth Argyle at the top of Sky Bet League One, as Freddie Ladapo headed the Suffolk side in front. 

Marcus Harness then glanced in a decisive second for Ipswich, who moved within a point of the Pilgrims after they were denied victory at Burton Albion by a last-minute equaliser. 

Exeter boss Gary Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon: "We said before the game they are very good - I'm pretty sure they'll get promoted. That was the best of what League One has to offer, but in terms of performance levels I think we were a bit off where we have been. 

“The intensity of our press wasn't quite what it has been but I was delighted with the players' effort and application. They gave everything. 

"We have to learn the small lessons that we've been taught. It's never good conceding goals but the second goal is from a set-piece and we've done a lot of work this week on defending set-pieces. It wasn't even a great delivery but we lose our man in the box. We were very much in the game at that point and thinking about changes to really go for it. Once it goes 2-0, it's a big ask from there." 

While Plymouth and Exeter are flying the flag for Devon football in League One, it has been a brutal start to the season for Torquay United in the National League. The Gulls were thumped 5-0 at Derby County in an FA Cup replay and then lost by a solitary goal at Barnet to drop to the bottom of the division.