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MOTD: Exeter City 2-2 Liverpool

By on January 8, 2016

Jürgen Klopp had a memorable introduction to the FA Cup. The Liverpool gaffer hopped off the team bus and into Exeter City’s small 8,000-seater stadium, St. James Park, almost half the size of the Bundesliga’s smallest venue. He walked into the away dressing room, suited to host League Two sides and certainly not a club of the Liverpool’s stature. It’s small, but Klopp took it in good spirits. “Actually this room is much bigger,” Klopp laughed in his post-match press conference.

The pitch that the German manager surveyed was splattered with mud and the slow trickle of rain throughout the ensuing ninety minutes of Liverpool’s third round tie with Exeter didn’t help. Before kickoff, Klopp was shuffled into his post-match pre-match interview with the BBC. For lack of a better space, the BBC had hung their ad-board along one wall of the club’s miniscule tea room adjacent to a dirty sink riddled with spare cups and mugs. The tea ladies watched on behind the cameras, which panned backwards to give them a brief moment of screen time before the BBC One’s coverage returned to their studio. Alan Shearer joked: “That’s the magic of the FA Cup!”

Exeter are just one position further from the bottom of the Football League pyramid than Liverpool are from the top, yet that contrast was diminished on the pitch tonight. Although Liverpool’s combination play was at times cleaner than that of Exeter, their hosts were more streetwise, accustomed to the rough edges of the pitch and more eager and determined to dig out an historic result. They came close, but Brad Smith’s late second-half equalizer held the match at 2-2.

For Exeter’s part, they couldn’t be happier with a return leg at Anfield that will bag them £500,000 in ticket sales alone. “Every month we spend everything we have and every spare penny goes into the playing budget,” Exeter manager Paul Tisdale said, per The Telegraph. “A windfall like this does not happen unless we sell a player or get this kind of opportunity so, yes, it’s a pay-day. It’s a big achievement for us today and we are now in a different position than we were 24 hours ago.”

Yet for Jürgen Klopp, it’s not hard to imagine that a draw is the worst possible result. The German manager featured a young side with three debutants and two more from the bench, with an average age of barely over twenty-two. With twelve injuries to their first team, yet another addition to their busy January fixture list represents a highly unwelcome strain on their squad.

“I can’t believe we have another game,” said Klopp in his post-match interview with the BBC. He looked tired himself, rubbing his eyes and shrugging as if he accepted what is a target for ire among many of his fellow Premier League managers.

Liverpool were, in fact, quite lucky to escape with a draw. Tim Nichols put the vigorous hosts in front on just nine minutes, poking home Josh Read’s pinpoint low cross from the left at full stretch.

Jerome Sinclair tucked away a scrappy equalizer from fifteen yards in the thirteenth minute, following a mix-up at the back between Jordan Tillson and Troy Brown. Kevin Stewart forced a smart save out of Exeter goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik but it was Exeter who looked the more dangerous of the two sides.

Christian Ribeiro narrowly headed wide of goal and David Noble came close with a long-range effort, before Lee Holmes scored directly from a corner on the brink of the break to give Exeter the lead. It wasn’t Adam Bogdan’s finest moment, Liverpool’s backup goalkeeper finding himself pushed around in the box and flapping at the ball as it whipped into the top corner of the net.

“We’ve been working all week on those corners – put it in the mixer and right on top of keeper Adam Bogdan. We knew we could cause an upset,” said Holmes.

Indeed, Exeter only grew in confidence, but the introduction of Sheyi Ojo sparked some life into the visitors and after Olejnik parried Christian Benteke’s powerful header, the substitute set up Smith to drive a low effort home to equalize.

Nonetheless, the banner displayed in the cozy home end of the stadium rang true: “What we do today echoes in eternity.” They left the second part of the banner, “Make history,” for the second leg.

Homepage photo credit: Rowan Massey at en.wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.