• HEALING HANDS HELP THE GULLS
• STILL A FEW TICKETS LEFT FOR MONDAY
• BUCKS' ANGER AT SPITTING INCIDENT
• 'HEY, THEY GOT A BAND!'

Full stories in Saturday's Herald Express and at www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk

EXETER CITY 1 GULLS 2 - THE MORNING AFTER!

• ADVANTAGE TO THE GULLS - FULL MATCH REPORT AND PICTURES
• EXTRA POLICE FOR THE SECOND LEG
• DRINK TO THE GULLS WITH A SPECIAL BREW

Full coverage in Friday's Herald Express and at www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk

A few post-match quotes:

Colin Lee: "There's a lot of football left in this game yet. It's a great result but we're only half way there."

Chris Zebroski: "We kept going for the full 90 minutes, and it was a good time to score! Now we all hope to take that form into Monday."

Paul Buckle: "We picked a formation that we thought would limit Exeter and frustrate them, and I thought it worked."

Bucks was also seething after a City supporter spat at him as he left the field.

Full match report, pictures, stats and reaction in Friday's Herald Express and at http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/.

More live blogging on Monday.

Goodnight from the press box!

What a result! Hargreaves was outstanding, but you have to hand it to Bucks.
The team selection and tactics were spot on, and he will say it has all gone according to plan.
Now we need to convert this on Monday!
The players are giving the fans plenty of applause, and the home supporters are saluting their team as well.
We seem to have scored with our only two efforts on target.
More later.

FINAL SCORE: EXETER 1 GULLS 2.

It was Dsane's run that set that up, by the way.
An inspired substitution, Mr Buckle.
It's 19 goals this season for Zebroski. We can even forgive him those boots

90 MINUTES: EXETER 1 GULLS 2: A howler by Jones, who clears against Zebroski. Old blue boots controls it and guides it into an empty net. We're in front and the fans on both sides can't believe it.

Steve Adams is suffering from cramp, and Roscoe Dsane replaces him.
There will be four added minutes at the end of the half, and we're into them now.

Another substitution, with Lee Elam replacing Carlisle. Surprising, as Carlisle has looked at his most dangerous in the last 10 minutes.
Elam is going to run at Nicko down our left, by the look of it, if they can get the ball to him.
Some girls are delivering pizza to the dressing rooms down below us. Is that the diet of champions, I ask you?

The crowd is 8,276.
Logan played for us on loan, of course, under Roy MacFarland.

Kevin Hill's 472nd Gulls appearance - he's one shy of the record now - comes in the 85th minute. He replaces Phillips, who has run himself into the ground.

Ben Watson replaces Stansfield for the home side.
Logan and Carlisle link up again, with Logan playing a lovely ball inside the full back. Carlisle trips over his own feet and the danger passes.
The Exeter fans' favourite Torquay player - Sills - finds himself having an interview with the editor of the Nursing Times, and it's another yellow card for a foul on Tully.

76 MINUTES: EXETER 1 GULLS 1: Carlisle races in to fire the ball into the roof of the net from six yards after Logan flicks on a Rob Edwards cross. It's Logan's first touch since coming on.
Now the home fans are singing.
The Gulls have to keep their heads now

At last Tisdale makes the change, bringing on Logan in the 74th minute for defender Danny Seaborne.
We told you so.
Meanwhile, Sills now appears to be playing in a kind of left wing back position as Torquay consolidate.

Taylor's back on with a big bandage, just in time to go up for a City corner.
The second player to be booked tonight is Gull Chris Robertson, who finds his way into the book for a little time-wasting.
Now the ref is lecturing Todd and Taylor after a minor altercation after Rayner and Moxey had clattered into one another.
More Setanta watchers are phoning the box now to say the City goal should have stood, and City are beginning to boss the possession again.
Woods, Todd and Robertson are tremendous at the back, though.

Matt Taylor is off with a blood injury for a moment.
Exeter director of football Steve Perryman is in the press box now, and his TV watchers are telling him it wasn't offside.
Now I'm off with a blood injury. It's my heart bleeding for the poor guy...

Now City have a goal disallowed for offside after Wayne Carlisle heads in a George Friend cross, but the linesman has flagged Carlisle offside.
It's a scare, though.

Matt Gill has a shot defelcted wide by Todd after half-hearted shouts for a City penalty are turned down.
The centre is headed tamely wide.
58 minutes gone. It's all good, it's all good.....

Still no sign of an Exeter substitute.
Paul Tisdale clearly believes his side is doing what he sent it out to do, although Stansfield really does look a forlorn figure up there.
Watch him score now....

Now Zebroski is going into Mr Scott's book for a foul on Harley, and the free kick is in what they call a dangerous position.
And it's a curling cross to the far post, headed over by Matt Taylor. Bet they wish they had a Tim Sills on the end of that.

Sills is unbelievable in the air, and flicks a Robertson throw wide of Jones' post.
You'll have to forgive me there. I thought we were having an earthquake, but it was just a train rumbling through behind the stand, with the driver playing a kind of football chant on the horn.
Nice touch.

And we're off, with Torquay now playing towards the City fans and no changes made in either side so far.
How long before Logan comes on?

Becky from Setanta is lurking on the touchline, waiting to grab someone to interview on the way out for the second half.
Bucks declines the honour and heads off across to the dugouts on his own.
The lovely Becky won't give up, though, and gets her man over by the dugouts.

HALF TIME: EXETER CITY 0 GULLS 1

Sills turns provider with a cross from the left that Jones plucks off Phillips' head.
The ref says two minutes of added time.
The officials are getting some stick here, and someone in front of me just stood up and bellowed 'Oi, assistant referee!'.
I've heard them called linesman, lino, baldy, fatso and blind so-and-so, but I have never heard a fan yell 'Oi, assistant referee!'

Now Woodsy tries his luck with a free kick from 40 yards, spotting Jones off his line, but the ball drops onto the roof of the net.
And the only song you can hear is 'The Gulls Are Going Up'
Stansfield is looking isolated up front for City, and the passes aren't finding him.
Popular opinion here suggests Logan should be on for the second half.

37 MINUTES: EXETER 0 GULLS 1. Phillips creates room for a cross on the right and it's a beauty, curling away from goal for Sills to meet with a brilliant header at the far post, back across the keeper and into the top corner.
Get in!

'We're gonna score in a minute.' sing the home fans, and they look the team most likely.
'It's a game of two defences' says former City favourite Scott Hiley, sitting in the press box. he's right.

Carlisle gets in behind us on a long ball (shades of Boxing Day) but it's a poor shot.
Now Phillips forces a corner with a run at the home defence.
Nicko takes it but it's an easy take for Jones.

Another shot from Harley, this time curling from the left and comfortably saved by big Simon Rayner.
And Exeter have us out-numbered on a counter attack. Lee Mansell gets in a diving header to clear the lines from another Stansfield cross.
Another Sills/Phillips attack is snuffed out, and on the counter-attack again there is a chance for Exeter, but Wayne Carlisle volleys over the top.

More danger as Steve Tully, an ex-Gull of course, drives in a low cross from the right which Woodsy clears for a corner.
And from the corner Taylor flicks a header just wide.
We are living dangerously here.

Hargreaves is everywhere again, blocking shots, heading the ball clear and trying to get things going.
First effort on target, and it's a Taylor header from a Ryan Harley cross. Fortunately it's straight at Simon Rayner and we survive. 18 minutes gone.

Chris Todd, another ex-Grecian, clears well under pressure as the home side begin to flex their muscles.
Tim Sills is getting some grief from the home fans, too, after his Boxing Day kerfuffle with Danny Seaborne.
Lee Phillips, too. Anyone would think this was a local derby.

Sills puts Phillips through with a lovely touch, but Lee is offside again.
A promising start, though.
Phillips looks really up for this again his former club. Expect fireworks...

Phillips is caught offside in the first minute.
Zebroski, in those blue boots again, is playing in his favoured free role behind the strikers by the look of it.

And we're playing towards our own fans in the first half. Here we go COME ON YOU YELLOWS!

And we're playing towards our own fans in the first half. Here we go COME ON YOU YELLOWS!

As we thought, there is yellow paper everywhere as the Gulls come out.
And here's the kind of fact you don't get on other blogs - referee Graham Scott is the editor of Nursing Times magazine.

Spotted in the stand - Ebbsfleet manager Liam Daish, presumably keeping an eye on the Gulls' form ahead of the Trophy final.

Apparently City's Dean Moxey has been nominated for the 'Blue Square Premier Of The Month'.
However, the announcer didn't say the Blue Square Premier WHAT Of The Month.

Woodsy has been out of action for exactly two months, so this is going to be something of a gamble for the Gulls.
The players are warming up, and the home fans are booing them in turn as they are announced.
Bless them...

By the way, I thought the view from the Plainmoor press box was bad, but this is worse.
Any ball more than 10 feet off the ground is going to be lost behind the roof of the stand.

With half an hour to go to kick-off, it really is a very nice evening here.
It's an odd stadium, this. Behind the goal away to the left is a high terraced stand, and opposite is the seating area where the old grass bank used to be. The main stand in which we are sitting is old, wooden and full of character, while the away terrace is about as cramped and unfriendly as you can get.
The Gulls fans are OK, though. There are balloons and flags, and I shouldn't be surprised if a storm of yellow paper doesn't fly through the air when the teams come out.

Exeter seem to be playing a 4-3-3, if our friends here in the press box are to be believed.
They have Jones in goal, Tully, Seaborne, Taylor and Friend across the back, Gill, Edwards and Harley in the, ahem, engine room, and Carlisle, Stansfield and Moxey up front.
On the bench they have Marriott, Elam, Cozic, Logan and Watson.

We have the teams, and it's a suprise for the Gulls.
Woodsy is fit and playing in a three-man centre-back trio.
We have Rayner in goal, Mansell on the right, Woods, Robertson and Todd in the middle and Nicko on the left. Zebroski, Hargreaves and Adams are in the engine room, as the pundits like to call it, and Phillips and Sills are up front.
On the bench are Rice, Hilly, Bedeau, Stevens and Dsane.

Good evening and welcome to sunny St James' Park, where the atmosphere is building nicely.
The Gulls fans are shading their eyes from the sun and enjoying the haute cuisine of floppy pies and unidentified hot liquids.
On the way into the ground the banter has been up to the usual standards.
Gulls fans had to run the gauntlet of an eight year old boy hurling abuse at them, but they didn't seem to mind.

• BUCKS SAYS 'WE'RE FAVOURITES!'


• FULL PLAY-OFF PREVIEW


• EVEN OUR CELEBS ARE BETTER!

Full stories in Thursday's Herald Express and on http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/

Headlines

• WILL IT BE THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR SILLSY?


• EARLY-BIRD FANS SNAP UP TICKETS

Full stories in Wednesday's Herald Express and on http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/

Last Chance!

The last few tickets for the away leg of the semi-final at Exeter will go on sale at Plainmoor on Thursday morning. Details from the club. Click the link on the right.

GILBERT! The best mascot in the Blue Square Premier by far!

On this blog you will be able to read real-time reports on all the big end-of-season matches, starting with the Play-Off semi-final at Exeter on Thursday night.
You will also be able to post your own messages during the matches, and at any time in between.