Next Up: Man City vs Exeter City – FA Cup

20 years ago, a City side in financial peril fought its way to the FA Cup third round, where a lanky striker in the shape of Tony Cascarino earned the freedom of the city by pulling out City’s ball alongside that of Manchester United. Fast forward to this season and a City side in financial peril fought its way, for the second successive season, to the FA Cup third round. The omens were good when it was announced a lanky striker (this time Peter Crouch) would be drawing the away teams, and so it proved, when immediately after Manchester City had been drawn, Crouch picked ball 61 – “will play….Exeter City”. Reduced ticket prices and the inexplicable decision that this fixture wasn’t one of 22 (out of 32) considered worthy of television coverage have meant the financial rewards won’t be as much as perhaps hoped – with the Trust having put out a missive to tug at the hosts’ heart strings in a bid for the Premier League giants to give up some of their share of gate receipts.

On to the match itself, and City go into the big one in great form, having secured three wins and a draw in the five tricky looking fixtures before and after Christmas and the new year, the only defeat being a hard-fought 1-0 reverse at table-topping Cardiff. Indeed, such is the mood in the camp that there was some disappointment at only drawing 2-2 at high-flying Huddersfield last Sunday in a match where it was widely acknowledged that City were the better team. In terms of personnel, City were rocked by the news that Aston Villa had recalled Sil Swinkels and sent him instead to Chesterfield, although with Ed Turns back from injury the impact wasn’t as bad as first thought. Turns was given 45 minutes on Sunday with skipper Pierce Sweeney given a half match rest, and with Sweeney suspended on Saturday this match practice may prove vital for Turns, while Luca Woodhouse returned to the line-up having made way for Swinkels against Luton. Gary Caldwell joked after Luton that all of his injured players were on the verge of miraculous recoveries ahead of this weekend – Danny Andrew in particular is thought to be close to a return but would likely only be on the bench, especially as it would be incredibly harsh to drop any of the current side given recent form. Rotation has mainly taken pace in the attacking areas aside from Jayden Wareham, with Cox, Cole, Higgins and Aitchison battling it out for a start, while Carlos Mendes Gomes has also been a more than useful body off the bench as an impact sub and may find this is his role again on Saturday. One player who will be desperate to feature at some point is Ed Francis, who captained a Man City youth side containing players like Phil Foden, Jayden Sancho, Brahim Diaz and Lucas Nmecha.

With a congested fixture list – drawing 1-1 with Brighton last night (Wednesday) and an EFL Cup semi final fixture next midweek, it’s hard to gauge what sort of line-up Pep Guardiola will put out for what he will deem a relatively straightforward fixture. If he goes with a full-strength side, this may be subject to fatigue and could impact on their fortunes against Newcastle, but if he chooses to make wholesale changes this could cause potential for embarrassment – as Arne Slot found out last season when he stuck out a reserve side against that lot from Cornwall. Expect therefore to see a mix of household names and fringe players, perhaps augmented by a strong bench if things do go awry.

There are very few sides that City have yet to face in a competitive fixture especially after playing Middlesbrough in the EFL Cup in 23/24, and Saturday’s match will reduce this list to just two of the current 92 (Arsenal and Bromley). Those with slightly longer memories point to the sides facing each other in Steve Neville’s testimonial match in 1991.

The match officials for this game will be:-

Referee: Adam Herczeg
Assistant Referees: Callum Gough & Conor Brown
Fourth Official: Sam Mulhall

We haven’t seen Adam Herczeg in charge of an Exeter game since August 2023, when we won 2-0 at Carlisle. This seaso0n he’s been mainly taking charge of Championship games, he record is 16 games, 65 yellow cards and 2 sending offs.

Interview with manager Gary Caldwell

Interview with Jack Fitzwater