Cheltenham Town 1-3 Exeter City
Exeter City completed a 3-1 win over Cheltenham Town on a wet, rainy and miserable afternoon at The LCI Rail Stadium.The Robins hit the woodwork twice in the opening period, but neither side could find the back of the net in the first half so it was goalless at the break.
Exeter took the lead after 55 minutes through Lee Holmes' strike, but Cheltenham hit back through Billy Waters 15 minutes later.
However, it was the Grecians who claimed all three points after two late goals from David Wheeler sealed the game for the Devon side.
Cheltenham had the better of the opening period and almost went in front on four minutes when Rob Dickie’s header was just about clawed away from goal by Exeter goalkeeper Christian Pym.
The away side quickly grew into the game, though, and had their first real chance on 10 minutes when Holmes played in Ollie Watkins on the right hand side, but his shot across goal went narrowly wide.
Exeter were on top at this point, and had it not been for a goal-saving tackle from Harry Pell when Watkins was bearing down on Russell Griffiths then they may well have gone ahead.
In fact it was Griffiths who had to stay alert when, just a minute later from the resulting corner, he palmed a deflected Lloyd James shot over the crossbar.
But from then on it was Cheltenham who finished the half stronger, as first Amari Morgan-Smith hit the post with a low shot before Pell skimmed the crossbar with a curling effort.
The home side were huffing and puffing but couldn’t break the Exeter defence down, with Waters going close after his shot beat Pym but not the man on the line and the sides went in level at the break.
After half time it took just ten minutes for Exeter to take the lead as Holmes hit a fantastic curling effort into the top left corner from the edge of the box.
Cheltenham responded quarter of an hour later, though, when Aaron Downes played a long ball forward that skidded straight into the path of Waters, who struck the ball into the bottom left corner to equalise for The Robins on 70 minutes.
Soon after Waters should have scored again when his close-range header was saved by Pym, who then pushed away the rebound as well.
And The Robins were made to pay for that miss on 80 minutes when Troy Brown set up Wheeler to prod the ball home and put Exeter back in front.
That lead was extended even further five minutes later as Griffiths saved a Jake Taylor shot, but Wheeler was there again to finish from the edge of the six-yard box.
Cheltenham Town: R Griffiths, A Downes (C), D Parslow (D O’Shaughnessy, 57), R Dickie, J Cranston, K Storer (K Arthur, 88), H Pell, J Dayton, A Morgan-Smith (E Suliman, 68), B Waters, D Wright.
Unused Subs: C Kitsha, M Bower, J Barthram, J Munns.
Exeter City: C Pym, C Woodman, L James (C), L Holmes, D Wheeler, O Watkins, M Oakley (J Tillson, 49), J Taylor, J Stacey, R Reid (L McAlinden, 80), T Brown.
Unused Subs: B Olejnik, R Harley, J Grant, E Ampadu, J Storey.