Harley's second half show sees off spirited Tiverton

A SHARP and assured second-half performance from Exeter City gave them a deserved 2-0 win over Tiverton Town last night.

For as disjointed and sluggish as the Grecians looked in the opening 45 minutes, they were every inch the slick and superior outfit in the second period as Ryan Harley pulled the strings from midfield.

It was Harley who opened the scoring with a blistering free-kick just after the interval, and the former Weston-super-Mare man also had a big hand in the second goal, converted by Craig McAllister.

But for long spells of the game City did not have it all their own way as Tiverton shot out of the blocks quicker than Dwain Chambers on THG.

Striker Lawrence Yiga, in particular, gave the Grecians' inexperienced back-line plenty of problems while Mark Saunders and Bobby Hopkinson hassled and harried in midfield, getting under the skin of the likes of Ben Osman and Michael Clark.

Yet for all their probing, Exeter made it difficult for their hosts to create any really clear-cut chances.

Tivvy's best opportunity to break the deadlock came on 13 minutes when Glen Gould's brilliant defence-splitting pass sent Jamie Densham clear on the right of the area, but the former Exmouth Town man snatched at his shot which flew wide of the near post.

From there on Exeter's collection of triallists and youngsters seemed to tackle, head and block everything the Yellows threw at them.

On 19 minutes keeper Nick Jordan just about managed to rise above Tom Gardner and get something on Bobby Hopkinson's wicked free-kick, while a minute later Chris Long launched himself full stretch to block a venomous Yiga effort.

The Tiverton onslaught showed no signs of abating and on the half hour Saunders and Gardner both went close before Yiga nodded over the best opportunity of the lot, six yards out at the near post from Chris Vinnicombe's corner.

The home side's dominance was such that League Two's newest addition were restricted to just one decent chance, when the impressive McAllister flicked on Jordan's kick and Adam Stansfield got a snap-shot away on the volley from 20 yards, which was easily saved by Chris Wright.

However, as against Team Bath the previous night, City sorted their act out after the interval.

Boss Paul Tisdale introduced Harley to add a dash of class and experience to the midfield and it immediately paid dividends when he opened the scoring on 52 minutes.

A long ball into the heart of Tiverton's defence was handballed by Nathan Rudge and Harley stepped up to spank the resulting free-kick past Wright from 20 yards.

More familiar faces were introduced by Tisdale soon after as Matt Gill and Marcus Stewart joined the party.

Soon Harley ran into trouble on the left, only to escape with an audacious backheel to Lewis Tasker. The full-back's ball into the box was inch-perfect for McAllister and with no challenge in sight he coolly slotted past Wright for 2-0.

Substitute Tom Knighton and then Mike Booth attempted to spark a comeback for the hosts, but Tivvy looked like the stuffing had been knocked out of them by City's double salvo.

A backline which has looked so assured in recent games began making some unforced errors and even Matt Villis, normally so reliable for the Yellows, was guilty of a howler.

With nobody around him the centre-half sold his goalkeeper woefully short with a backpass and Richard Logan was on it in a flash. The striker did well to sell Wright a dummy, but Villis did even better to recover and save a certain goal with a full-stretch block on the line. With 13 minutes remaining Tivvy came close to salvaging something from the game when Knighton beat Jordan to Villis' long ball before tapping into an empty net. But the referee blew up for a foul on the keeper to ensure City's clean sheet remained intact.

Tiverton Town: Wright, Adam Faux, Vinnicombe, Villis, Rudge, Gardner, Gould, Hopkinson, Densham, Saunders, Yiga. Second half subs: Knighton, Pugh, Booth, Barker, Alex Faux, Gwynett, Kelly

Exeter City: Jordan, Long, Tasker, Martin, Furzer, Clark, Green, Ben Osman, Logan, McAllister, Stansfield. Second half Subs: Marriott, Tully, Friend, Gill, Harley, Panther, Toby Osman, Stewart, Dawson, Frear

Att: 1029