Brian Mulligan meets the Exeter fan who flew 4,000 miles for 90 minutes of memories
December 6, 2004. With one typically deft movement, Millwall legend Tony Cascarino sets up an FA Cup Third Round tie which gifts a recently relegated, bankrupt club a lifeline – and their fans a lifetime of memories.
“Ball 8… the cup holders Manchester United… will play… ball 64… Exeter City!”
Nearly 4,000 miles away in Washington DC, the news takes a while to filter through across the Atlantic. “In the early 2000s,” explains long-converted Grecian Chris Ward, “I had gone to work in the States and had to accept following City on unreliable dial-up internet connections.”
“I missed the draw but I was told by colleagues that Exeter were going to play Manchester United. I couldn’t quite believe it. Exeter at Old Trafford! What made it better was a family dislike for the red side of Manchester from the time my grandparents used to take me to Anfield as a boy.”
“As soon as I got home from work that day and told my wife, her instant reaction was, ‘You need to fly back – and take Luke with you!’. Luke was our middle child and, at eight years old, was just being subjected to all things Exeter.” The youngest, Cameron, then only three, didn’t make the final squad.
Chris, of course, needed little persuasion: “I watched my first Exeter game in the autumn of 1989 which ended being a bore draw with Carlisle in the rain. My schoolfriends had persuaded me to go but I wasn’t keen, to be honest. I was hooked though, the noise of the Cowshed and the cheering, the action that was so close you felt you could literally touch the players.”
Having been brought up on going to watch Liverpool and moving to Devon with his family in 1987, this was a whole new experience. “I have followed Exeter home and away ever since with some seasons attending more games than others depending on work commitments.”
Exeter, however, had not been so consistent. Under the old league system, City had had to be re-elected nine times but in 2003, their 80-year membership of The 92 had come to an end. Two of the club’s directors were successfully prosecuted for fraudulent trading, leaving City laden with precarious debt.
Fans pledged thousands of pounds to keep the club going, funds augmented by a centenary exhibition game with a Brazilian XI to mark Exeter’s pioneering trip to South America in 1914.
Nine months later, as Grecian supporters booked trains and coaches to make the 240-mile journey north to Manchester, Ward senior and junior were plotting their cross-continental odyssey.
“Luke and I flew from Washington Dulles to Manchester on the Thursday. We did a tour of Old Trafford on the Friday and even bumped into Jimmy Giles, Exeter City veteran and Radio Devon commentator, wandering around the ground. We made our way to the stadium just after lunch on the Saturday.”
“The game itself seemed to take days. I remember looking at the scoreboard after about 20 minutes, counting every second down. The second half was quite possibly one of the most stressful times I can remember.”
Exeter were holding Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United at 0-0 when the Scot sent on Scholes and Ronaldo just after the hour. On-loan keeper Paul Jones brilliantly saved a powerful drive from the Portuguese teenager, while life-long Man U fan and Exeter academy graduate Dean Moxey came close at the other end.
As desperate whistles from the away end reached their peak, Phil Dowd finally joined in, offering Exeter their dream outcome: a replay back at St James’ Park.
This noble and lucrative tradition was abandoned two decades later, of course, to ensure that Premier League players were fresh for off-season tours of the Far East. But, back in the winter of 2005, a replay was almost better than an away win.
“The atmosphere at the end was electric. No-one could quite believe we had held Manchester United, with the likes of Paul Scholes and Phil Neville on the pitch.” Joy was unconfined as the cider boys had gone from apple scrumping to necking the scrumpy.
“The press were all outside interviewing anyone they could. I remember speaking to regional TV and telling them I had travelled from the US with my son. It was the best experience ever.”
In Devon eleven days later, Ronald nutmegged Jones on nine minutes to set up an early lead for the illustrious visitors, whose starting XI also included Ryan Giggs, both Nevilles and late goalscorer Wayne Rooney. Result: 0-2 and life-saving TV revenue.
There was no replay for the intrepid Wards, however. “After Old Trafford, we had a quiet evening before heading back to the airport on Sunday morning for our flight back to the US. I remember buying ten newspapers and taking them all with me, with the back pages emblazoned with Grecians’ success stories.”
“It had been a quick-fire visit watching Exeter that I would never forget and I would repeat in a heartbeat. I remember getting back to the office on the Monday with someone asking me, ‘What did you do this weekend?’ Well…”
Meanwhile, back in Devon, extinction was prevented thanks to one of the first fan takeovers by a supporters’ trust, negotiations with the Inland Revenue reducing the debt. The £653,511 share of the Old Trafford gate of 67,000, plus the replay money, raised the best part of a million pounds, helping to re-establish the club as solvent. Within five years, the Grecians returned to the Football League. Replays, eh?
Roll on 20 or so years and Exeter are back in Manchester for the FA Cup on January 10, this time facing City at the Etihad: “As I’m now back living in east Devon, I get to all home matches and half-a-dozen away games every season. Luke lives in North Yorkshire and sees Exeter now and then”.
“My youngest, Cameron, who was three years old back in 2005, has become an Exeter fanatic just like me. He has finished his degree in sports journalism and works for Exeter City and the supporters’ trust in a media capacity. I’ve recounted to him many times the saga of the United cup tie. He has often said, ‘I wish I could get to see them play in Manchester…’ Well, now he can!”
“We are making a weekend of it again, travelling up by train to Manchester on the Friday and back on the Sunday. A repeat of 2005 would be amazing. You just never know…”
