It’s my last column before Christmas, and a chance to reflect on the year. To use an old football cliché, it’s a game of two halves, and this year has definitely been one of two halves!  

It’s seen us hit the top of the league, something I don’t think any of us could have foreseen, and it’s also seen us hit a bad run of form, exacerbated by a spate of injuries to some key players, in the last couple of months. 

Off the pitch, we’ve made great strides on the development of our club, improvements are always underway at St James Park and in March, we unveiled our incredible new £3 million facility at the Cliff Hill Training Ground – an amazing achievement for our club. 

We also make sure we look after our fans; concerned about the impact of the increase on the cost of living, we launched the City for all Scheme in January. It’s a scheme which provides free match tickets to families who are under financial pressure and may not otherwise be able to attend matches. The club provides tickets, and generous supporters contribute to the cause – so thank you, if you are one of them. 

This year we welcomed HEL Performance as our new front of shirt sponsor. We’re so grateful to them for getting behind our club, they’re a real champion of Exeter and thoroughly nice people, to boot, pardon the pun…! Thanks to all of our sponsors, large and small, you’re part of what makes our club so special! 

We said goodbye to some of our own this year, with Matt Jay, Jack Sparkes, Archie Collins and Josh Key, amongst others, all moving on – and we’ve wished them well as they continue on their football journeys. We’ve watched others of our own grow and perform on an international stage – with Ethan Ampadu and Ollie Watkins playing for their national teams and Jay Stansfield’s career continuing its upward trajectory. 

This year saw a series of events celebrating the 20th anniversary of our club being owned by Exeter City Supporters’ Trust. It’s a unique ownership model and 20 years is an incredible milestone and one of which we are all very proud. 

The women’s team have had a fantastic year. Although they missed out on promotion by a whisker last season, they started this one in fantastic form, with an amazing 11 league wins from 11 games. Their matches at St James Park have been well attended, as have the games at Exwick Sports Hub, thanks to Exeter College for their support with that. Head down there to watch them on a Sunday afternoon and the next game at SJP is in March. 

To more recent activities, the beginning of this month saw our fantastic community day; one group of players headed into the RD&E Hospital to take more than £1,000 worth of gifts to youngsters on Bramble Ward, while another group were sitting down for a meal with our older fans at St James Park. The day culminated with a very well attended calendar signing event. 

Our charity, Exeter City Community Trust, has also been busy this month, with activities including the Exeter Santa Run, which was, as usual, a sight to behold as hundreds of Santas 

of all shapes and sizes dashed through Exeter High Street. It’s also been delivering its free holiday activities with food for children of families on lower incomes from schools in Exeter. 

The next men’s team games are critical for us, with Cambridge away this Friday evening, swiftly followed by home games against Wycombe on Boxing Day and Portsmouth on December 29, and then away to Reading on January 1. 

Thank you to everyone who has read this column over the year, and particularly thank you to every single person who supports our club. Keep the faith! Look forward to seeing you at St James Park soon. 

Julian Tagg
Exeter City Club President