Here I am from the M5 near Worcester on the way back. Been a long day and a bad result.

It wasnt a 3-1 defeat in my opinion, even though we didnt play that well. We took the lead from a mistake by their keeper and centre half who seemed not to know what the other was doing allowing Behan to walk the ball into an empty net. There equaliser had a little luck to it as Flinders made a decent save only for the ball to come back off the post to an Exeter player who scored onto the opposite corner.

Come half time some where surprised to se e both Brown and Monkhouse replaced by Larkin and Fredriksen, me included though neither had done much to sub both players who could create something at same time did seem strange. Maybe they had both took knocks. Austin moved to right back to try and stop their left winger, were all their threats in the first half had come from. Why someone hadnt kicked him is beyond me you cant run while limping.

The 2nd goal anerror by Liddle and you just knew as soon as he missed it it was going to be 2-1 and sure enough it was. Even then we could have equalised two good successive saves from their keeper resulting in a corner which Boyd headed towards goal only for it to come back from the bar.

A chance later for Larkin to make it 2-2 where he chooses the wrong option of 3 and tries to drive it through the keeper and score, a pass across would see an equaliser or he should attempt to round the keeper. The 3rd in almost the last minute just made the result a little unjust.

Highlight of the day, the free cornish pasties brought round for the away supporters near the end as they hadnt sold them, a nice gesture by Exeter and well appreciated.

Sweeney poor again, he should be replaced on Tuesday night and if whoever does plays well he should stay in.

Fredriksen, you all know I rave about him after first 2 or 3 games at start of season also poor, as sub, when he had the chance to shine and make that position his on Tuesday as well.

The other highlight of the day was the Exeter no15 edwards looked old with bald head and as Boyd won a corner I called out from very close, come on Boydy he's old and knackered, he turned looked at smiled nodded and said your right.

I would just like to confirm, it was a 3-1 defeat.

Ps. Good write up though :) Wish I could have gone down.

on Bob?

Well written Bob and from the heart too !

Is he maybe Turners long lost son?

Only explanation I can think of.

A while ago I would have been posting some ramblings about how we are not good enough etc following a result such as this but the division is so 'tight' that I can see us (and most of the other teams) being very inconsistent.

We will suffer some poor results such as today but should get some good ones too. I predicted relegation before the season started mainly due to my lack of confidence in CT therefore Im not too downhearted about how we have started the season.

We have a lot of players who are capable of 'off-days' so results like todays will be common unfortunately. When you 'accept' this then you are less likely to over-react as some people (and myself in the past) do.

Lets hope we make amends on Friday.

As we have said for a while now, lets see where we are at the end October/November.

we had half a dozen really good opportunities in the 2nd half,they had fewer, but nevertheless scored two to our none. That's how it goes sometimes - but I'm not happy at Turner replacing every single one of our flair players. There was no need for this at all in my opinion and reduced our capability of creating even more chances

Parmo, it seems that Monkey had a virus and Browny a back strain. I was convinced there'd been a bust up a H/T, I love a conspiracy me.

well they would say that!!!!

Their second was miles offside, even some of the Exeter lot looked embarrassed by it.

Possibly the worst away day ever.

Thats a hell of a claim given the history of Hartlepool United.

It took me 9.5 hours to travel 90 miles.

Read all about it in the next issue of MB