2015–16 Exeter City F.C. season

Exeter City

2015–16 season
Owner	Exeter City Supporters' Trust
Chairman	Julian Tagg
Manager	Paul Tisdale
Stadium	St James Park
League Two	14th
FA Cup	Third round (Eliminated by Liverpool)
League Cup	Second round (Eliminated by Sunderland)
League Trophy	Second round (Eliminated by Plymouth)
Top goalscorer	League: Jayden Stockley (10) All: Jayden Stockley (10)
Highest home attendance	7,177 (2–1 vs Yeovil, 2 Apr 16)
Lowest home attendance	2,323 (2–0 vs Portsmouth, 1 Sep 15)
Average home league attendance	4,008
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 season was Exeter City's 114th year in existence and their fourth consecutive season in League Two.^[1] Along with competing in League Two, the club also participated in the FA Cup, League Cup and League Trophy. The season covered the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016.

Transfers

Transfers in

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
1 July 2015	CM		Alex Byrne	Academy	Trainee	[2]
1 July 2015	RW		Joe Charles	Academy	Trainee	[2]
1 July 2015	CF		Cameron Gill	Academy	Trainee	[2]
1 July 2015	LW		Lee Holmes	Preston North End	Free transfer	[3]
1 July 2015	GK		Bobby Olejnik	Peterborough United	Free transfer	[4]
1 July 2015	RM		Emmanuel Oyeleke	Brentford	Free transfer	[5]
1 July 2015	DF		Josh Read	Academy	Trainee	[2]
3 July 2015	CB		Troy Brown	Cheltenham Town	Free transfer	[6]
30 July 2015	CF		Will Hoskins	Oxford United	Free transfer	[7]
8 August 2015	CF		Clinton Morrison	Free agent	Free transfer	[8]
21 August 2015	RW		Joel Grant	Yeovil Town	Free transfer	[9]
25 January 2016	CM		Jake Taylor	Reading	Free transfer	[10]

Transfers out

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
1 July 2015	CB		Pat Baldwin	Weymouth [lower-alpha 1]	Free transfer	[12]
1 July 2015	CB		Scot Bennett	Notts County [lower-alpha 2]	Free transfer	[12]
1 July 2015	RM		Graham Cummins	St Johnstone [lower-alpha 3]	Free transfer	[12]
1 July 2015	CM		Liam Sercombe	Oxford United [lower-alpha 4]	Free transfer	[16]
1 September 2015	CM		Jimmy Keohane	Woking	Free transfer	[17]
1 February 2016	FW		Tom Nichols	Peterborough United	Undisclosed	[18]

Loans in

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Date until	Ref.
11 January 2016	CF		Jayden Stockley	Bournemouth	30 June 2016	[19]

Loans out

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Date until	Ref.
17 July 2015	CM		Alex Byrne	Weston-super-Mare	End of season	[20][21]
17 July 2015	CM		Jason Pope	Weston-super-Mare	31 January 2016	[20][21]
21 July 2015	LB		Connor Riley-Lowe	Truro City	End of season	[22][23]
29 September 2015	CF		Jamie Reid	Truro City	23 November 2015	[24][25]
22 November 2015	CF		Matt Jay	Hayes & Yeading United	End of season	[26][27]
22 January 2016	CF		Cameron Gill	Weston-super-Mare	End of season	[27]
25 February 2016	GK		James Hamon	Hayes & Yeading United	25 March 2016	[28]

Competitions

Pre-season friendlies

On 18 May 2015, Exeter City announced that Brazilian side Fluminense will bring an under-19 squad to face in a pre-season friendly on 20 July 2015.^[29] A day later Exeter City announced a second friendly against Weston-super-Mare.^[30] On 20 May 2015, Torquay United was added to the schedule.^[31] A pre-season trip to Scotland was confirmed on 21 May 2015.^[32] On 8 June 2015, a visit from AFC Bournemouth was confirmed.^[33] A friendly against Sheffield United was announced a day later.^[34] On 16 June it was announced that an Exeter City XI would play Bodmin Town.^[35]

League Two

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
12	Mansfield Town	46	17	13	16	61	53	+8	64
13	Wycombe Wanderers	46	17	13	16	45	44	+1	64
14	Exeter City	46	17	13	16	63	65	−2	64
15	Barnet	46	17	11	18	67	68	−1	62
16	Hartlepool United	46	15	6	25	49	72	−23	51

Results summary

Exeter City gained 29 points at home and picked up 35 points away, adding up to 64 in total.

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
46	17	13	16	63	65	−2	64	6	11	6	32	33	−1	11	2	10	31	32	−1

Last updated: 7 May 2016.
Source: BBC Sport

Results by round

Exeter were a mid-table club for the entire season, spending two matchdays in the play-offs zone and falling to as low as 17th after a four-game losing streak in December and early January. For the first half of the season, the club's form was very inconsistent. From December onwards, Exeter suffered a four-game losing streak which was closely followed by a three-game winning streak. Then followed four matches without a win and a ten-match unbeaten run.

Despite this unbeaten streak, Exeter remained in fourteenth place from 20 February to 25 March. After a 2–0 win away at Crawley, Exeter rose to 11th in the table, 5 points off the play-offs zone. On 2 April 2016 and 9 April 2016, Exeter achieved a double against local rivals Plymouth Argyle and Yeovil Town, resulting in their continued rise up the table. After the latter match, Exeter were 9th, 2 places and on equal points with AFC Wimbledon and Wycombe Wanderers, although with an inferior goal difference.

This unbeaten streak, along with Exeter's realistic play-off hopes was broken by a 3–2 home loss to Mansfield Town. Exeter were mathematically confirmed to be remaining in League Two after another loss to Bristol Rovers. Exeter finished the season back in 14th position after suffering a 4–1 routing away to Luton.

  Win   Draw   Loss

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46
Ground	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A
Result	W	L	W	D	L	W	W	L	L	W	D	D	L	W	D	L	D	W	W	D	L	L	L	L	D	W	W	W	L	L	D	L	W	D	W	D	W	D	W	W	W	D	L	L	D	L
Position	8	13	9	8	13	7	6	9	14	9	11	11	13	11	11	14	14	13	10	11	12	14	16	17	15	14	13	12	13	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	11	10	9	9	10	12	11	14

Last updated: 7 May 2016.
Source: ^[36]
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Matches

On 17 June 2015, the fixtures for the 2015–16 season were announced.^[37]

Score overview

  Win   Draw   Loss

Opposition	Home	Away	Dou.	Agg.
Accrington Stanley	2–1	2–4		4–5
AFC Wimbledon	0–2	1–2		1–4
Barnet	1–1	0–2		1–3
Bristol Rovers	1–1	1–3		2–4
Cambridge United	1–0	1–0		2–0
Carlisle United	2–2	0–1		2–3
Crawley Town	2–2	2–0		4–2
Dagenham & Redbridge	1–2	2–1		3–3
Hartlepool United	1–0	2–0		3–0
Leyton Orient	4–0	3–1		7–1
Luton Town	2–3	1–4		3–7
Mansfield Town	2–3	2–0		4–3
Morecambe	1–1	1–1		2–2
Newport County	1–1	1–1		2–2
Northampton Town	0–0	0–3		0–3
Notts County	1–1	4–1		5–2
Oxford United	1–4	0–3		1–7
Plymouth Argyle	2–1	2–1		4–2
Portsmouth	1–1	2–1		3–2
Stevenage	3–3	2–0		5–3
Wycombe Wanderers	0–2	0–1		0–3
Yeovil Town	3–2	2–0		5–2
York City	0–0	0–2		0–2

Note: Exeter City goals are listed first.

FA Cup

During the First Round Proper draw on 26 October 2015, Exeter were drawn against 8th-tier side Didcot Town.^[38] For the second round, Exeter faced League One team Port Vale, winning the fixture 2–0. During the draw for the third round, Exeter were drawn against Premier League side Liverpool. The match ended with a draw as Liverpool fielded a largely inexperienced side and was televised on BBC One.^[39] A rematch was played at Anfield on 20 January.^[40] It was reported that the two matches against Liverpool could eventually result in a £1,000,000 windfall for Exeter City. This amount was eventually revealed to be £700,000^[41] Exeter were thoroughly overpowered in the replay, losing 3–0. Liverpool had 26 shots, compared to Exeter's 4.^[42]

League Cup

On 16 June 2015, the first round draw was made, Exeter City were drawn away against Swindon Town.^[43] On 11 August 2015, Exeter won against Swindon Town 2–1 with goals from David Wheeler and Alex Nicholls at the County Ground.^[44] On 13 August 2015, the second round draw was made and Exeter City were drawn away against Premier League team Sunderland.^[45] Sunderland scored two early goals before Exeter equalised through Emmanuel Oyeleke and David Wheeler. The score was 3–3 at half-time, which became 6–3 to Sunderland at full-time as Exeter's defence failed, including an incident where goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik was caught off his line.^[46] This is the most goals Exeter have conceded all season so far, and was the second of five games in the season in which Exeter lost by three goals.

Football League Trophy

On 8 August 2015, live on Soccer AM the draw for the first round of the Football League Trophy was drawn by Toni Duggan and Alex Scott. Grecians hosted Portsmouth^[47] and won the match 2–0, advancing to the next round. The draw for the second round was held on 5 September 2015, again live on Soccer AM.^[48] Exeter were drawn against rivals Plymouth Argyle.

Goalscorers

Source: BBC Sport (does not include League Trophy goals)

Neither of the top two scorers were at the club for the whole season. Tom Nichols left at the end of the January transfer window while Jayden Stockley joined the club on loan from AFC Bournemouth during the same window.

Rank	Player	Total	LG2	FAC	FLC	FLT
1	Tom Nichols	12	10	2	0	0
2	Jayden Stockley	10	10	0	0	0
3	Ollie Watkins	9	8	1	0	0
4	David Wheeler	8	6	0	2	0
	Alex Nicholls	8	5	1	1	1
6	Ryan Harley	5	4	0	0	1
7	Joel Grant	4	4	0	0	0
	Christian Ribeiro	4	4	0	0	0
	Jake Taylor	4	4	0	0	0
10	Lee Holmes	3	2	1	0	0
11	Clinton Morrison	2	1	1	0	0
	Jordan Tillson	2	1	1	0	0
13	Troy Brown	1	1	0	0	0
	Arron Davies	1	1	0	0	0
	Will Hoskins	1	1	0	0	0
	Jamie Reid	1	1	0	0	0
	Tom McCready	1	0	0	1	0
	Manny Oyeleke	1	0	0	1	0

References