TEN-man Harriers secured a deserved point at St. James' Park today after an eventful 1-1 draw that unfortunately grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again.
Russell Penn and ex-Harrier Billy Jones scored the respective goals, Harriers going ahead before City's equaliser but once again it was a case of this action taking a backseat to extra-curricular activity.
Harriers luckless run with match officials continued and showed no signs of slowing down, with the visitors being refused two stone-walled penalties in the second-half as well as the assistant referee who was well and truly hoodwinked by City's Chris Todd who put on what can only be described as an appalling act of bad sportsmanship in the lead up to Reuben Reid's sending off.
Harriers started the brightest and took a second-minute lead, really shocking the home crowd as debutant Rob Davies spreading a fantastic ball to Penn with the outside of his boot - the midfielder was left free to charge into the box and blast the ball past Paul Jones.
Lee Phillips and Adam Stansfield looked lively up front and made sure that the Grecians were still seen as a threat but it was Harriers who were largely in control and it was only the offside flag that prevented it from being a certain 2-0 after Reid was adjudged to have been offside as he ran on to Gavin Hurren's great ball.
The visitors will be disappointed with the way the equaliser was conceded - whilst the hosts were piling on the pressure it did in the end only take one through-ball to unlock the back for as Jones left Bevan tangling with Mark Creighton as he tapped home from short range on 28 minutes.
Barely six minutes later they could have taken the lead after Exeter were awarded a penalty - the award itself wasn't as controversial we've seen in recent weeks, instead that was to follow, Penn had brought down Jones who stepped up to take the kick that was superbly saved by Bevan's knees.
Into the second half and initially it was Exeter who looked the most dangerous as Matt Gill forced a good save from Bevan, as did Stansfield as he latched on to Jones' cross.
On 64 minutes it was a mystery as to how Harriers weren't awarded a penalty, we can say this safely without accusation of bias as it wasn't even down to interpretation, Creighton was clearly hauled down to the ground by the collar of his shirt as he looked to head on to Penn's ball, after which the biggest disappointment of the game saw the visitors reduced to ten men.
The record will show that Reid was dismissed for violent conduct but there's very rarely much of a story when things are black and white and so it proved here - Reid went down in the area perhaps a little easily but this clearly angered City's Todd who dropped to his knees to give the striker a verbal bashing which was missed by the assistant referee. He continued to spew into Reid's face as the pair rose to their feet, again missed by the official but as the striker motioned with his head towards Todd after he'd received a shove of his own for his trouble, the linesman seemed to regain his sight.
Despite such blatant gamesmanship on Todd's part, with the referee only having the 'headbutt' to go on it's only fair that in terms of the rules Reid was dismissed and nobody here will condone his reaction - how Todd can have played the victim and survived without so much of a verbal warning from officials was baffling. An issue of temperament, maybe, but no player should be asked to accept such a lack of sportsmanship.
To their credit Harriers, as is the case these days, showed no signs of folding under the pressure, Penn left Jones for dead on the wing as the midfielder weaved his way into the box for a shot that was tipped wide, soon after the 90 or so Harriers' fans saw their appeals for a blatant spot-kick for handball inside the box also ignored. So rarely will you see a group of supporters of any persuasion appeal in such vocal unison but the appeals were waved away.
Even down to ten men and with decisions going against them Harriers were the better team, they had two good chances to win the game late on as Russell waited far too long to pull the trigger as he was put through on goal by Christie until Jones was able to save - Hurren sent a free-header inside the box crashing wide from a midfield cross.
Bevan made fantastic saves look distinctly ordinary as he held up his end of the bargain as Exeter huffed and puffed to find a way through.
City were booed from the pitch at the final whistle with their fans clearly upset with their sides' performance in a game in which Harriers clearly had more dominant spells. Quite how the hosts can describe this as two points 'thrown away' is a mystery. It's just one league defeat in six for Mark Yates' men.
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| Exeter: Paul Jones, Woodards, Todd, Edwards, Billy Jones, Taylor (Moxey 81), Buckle, Gill, Challinor, Stansfield (Mackie 73), Phillips. Unused substitutes: Rice, Cozic, Ada. Harriers: Bevan, Kenna, Creighton, Whitehead, Blackwood, Davies, Hurren, Penn, Russell, Reid, Christie. Unused substitutes: Steve Taylor, White, Reynolds, McGrath, Smikle. Today's match attendance: 3,082 Today's referee: Graham Scott |
