City win 4-1 but this blog still has a chip on its shoulder. That's what happens when you fall asleep on your post-pub kebab

Weymouth: a batter plaice without Happy as Larry in attendance

Typical. You spend years (oh, all right, two years) freezing to death on the terraces at the Wessex Stadium waiting for Exeter City to, just once, record a victory there. And then they go and win the game you don't go to. Once, just for once, it would have been nice if a trip to the seaside town could have ended in something other than depression.

[I actually quite like Weymouth as a place. You can get very decent fish and chips there. Sadly, the stadium is nowhere near a chippy, although if industrial estates are you thing, you'll enjoy it. There's also a pub called the John Gregory nearby, which amuses me a lot more than it should.]

In fairness to those depressing defeats in Dorset, they meant something, unlike a pre-season friendly. But still, it's nice that we can chalk up a victory there, even if it is a meaningless match against a team three divisions below us. I'm not taking this attitude because I'd forgotten the game was even on, honest.

And, getting serious for a moment, it's good to see Weymouth even playing games. It was touch and go for a lot of last season as to whether they'd survive.

Actually, all games at this stage mean something as Paul Tisdale starts to select his starting eleven for Leeds. Given that we've currently got about 27 central midfielders, that's no easy task. In Tis we trust though.

From the sounds of things Manny Panther played well against Weymouth. After seeing the big man with an impenetrable Scottish accent in fits and starts last season, here's hoping he can lay claim to a starting spot. Panther's got pace and power (but a poor first touch) and could give us an extra physical edge that we'll need.

He probably won't even make the starting lineup now I've written that.

More worryingly was the injury to Adam Stansfield. After establishing that it's definitely not his head that's the problem, it's now a question of waiting to see what part of his body is knacked and how bad it is.

Stanno missed the run-in through injury last season and if he's done his knee in again that's not good news. He's not exactly prolific but he has got pace and will harry defenders all day long. Without him, we don't look exactly pacy up front.

The natural replacement for Stanno would be Ben Watson but he doesn't seem to have featured in any of the pre-season friendlies. Perhaps he got tarmacked over when the Cat and Fiddle training ground car park was being relaid and nobody noticed? He is only little after all.

Is it the start of the season yet? God, I'm getting impatient.

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Pre-season friendlies: we'll cross those three bridges when we come to them

Paul Tisdale reacts to the latest pre-season friendly result against Salisbury

It's off. Oh, no, wait, it's on. No, it's off. No, it's definitely on. Honestly, anybody would think we didn't want anybody to know the youth team have a friendly at Three Bridges FC this Saturday.

After being shifted around dates and cancelled more times than Battlestar Galactica, it's finally, definitely on. Maybe. Well, the oracle that is London Exiles organiser Neil Le Milliere says it's on, and that's good enough for me in terms of a yes.

Sadly it's not quite good enough as I'd already made other plans after being told it definitely wasn't happening, and I will now be lugging a large TV from one side of London to the other. Such are the joys of a weekend without competitive football.

This is a semi-lie, as the first team are actually at Forest Green Rovers that day in the last of the Grecians' pre-season friendlies. We're currently losing 3-1 at Salisbury as this is being typed, so hopefully we'll get some kind of win under our belt before the season starts.

But then does it really matter. On one hand, yes. I'd like City to win every game, thank you very much, and getting into the winning mentality is a good thing. On the other hand, meh. It's pre-season and it's hard to get that excited or read too much into a 2-2 draw at Weston-Super-Mare.

A couple of years ago we got thumped 6-0 by Bristol City in a pre-season game and went on to get promoted. We've also beaten Championship opposition in recent years and gone onto, well, not get promoted. Conclusions? There are none. It's pre-season. Get over it.

Realistically, losing to a full-strength Tottenham Hotspur and Derby isn't the end of the world this month. Losing to Salisbury is irritating. If we lose to Forest Green, that'll be troubling. But it'll mean nothing if Exeter get a result in the opener against Leeds.

Not that I can offer too much insightful analysis into any of the pre-season friendlies as I've not made any due to other commitments and ridiculously high train fares. Look, this blog did promise to offer nothing more than ill-informed opinion and conjecture, didn't it?

Whether you can call picking up a new TV a valid other commitment, I'm not sure. But it does mean I'll be able to watch football on a bigger screen. So it's an investment, and if it means forgoing a few hours in Crawley on Saturday, then it's an investment I can live with.

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Hello from Happy As Larry

Hello and welcome to Happy As Larry.

What the...?

What, you may ask, is Happy as Larry. It’s a good question and one you’re well within your rights to ask.

Essentially, Happy As Larry is a blog about Exeter City FC. And, er, that’s it really.

HAL (official acronym) came about because there’s only so many time I can indulge in my love of the Grecians without pushing my luck.

Let’s back up a minute as it probably helps if I explain who I am.

Hi, I’m Gary. You must be the reader. Pleased to meet you.

I do lots of things online both for work and pleasure (quiet at the back), and the latter part of that is football writing.

You can find me at Soccerlens or co-hosting the weekly twofootedtackle podcast (which starts up again next week) with Chris Nee. I also blog about stuff at the imaginatively titled garyandrews.net.

I also talk about Exeter City. A lot. After a few chats with Chris at twofootedtackle, he suggested creating a specific Exeter City blog to sit on the twofootedtackle network.

And HAL is that.

Why the...?

So why, you may ask, is it called Happy as Larry. That’s a good question and one you’re also well within your rights to ask.

It isn’t, contrary to what you may assume, anything to do with an Exeter City player called Larry. It has everything to do with an Exeter City player called Dean Moxey.

Just under five years ago, Deano fired a forty-five yard strike against Doncaster Rovers in the second round of the FA Cup to set up a tie against Manchester United; a tie that saved the club from their debts.

That was cool. What was even cooler was Deano’s post-match Match of the Day interview. "Looked up, hit it, ball dropped in, Happy as Larry." Both goal and interview are below.

How the...?

So what can you expect on here. Well, all things Exeter City, for a start.
What won’t be happening on here is merely parroting the daily ECFC news from whatever source it comes from.

Face it, if you’re a big enough Exeter City fan to be searching out an online blog, chances are you’ll already be up to date with the latest City news. And I live in London, so chances are you’re more up to date with the Exeter City news than I am.

What will be on here is occasional ill-informed musings on City. Opinion, basically (come off it, I’m a fan blog. Do you REALLY expect me to be breaking the news ahead of the papers. Especially with a day job, other writing and other such stuff). And it won’t exactly be daily. Quality, not quantity, la.

But I’d like to think it’s reasonably well-informed opinion. After all, part of my life is talking about football, so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that I can write coherently on my chosen team.

Plus, it will be biased. Biased as hell. I try my best to be neutral when I write elsewhere (you want a piece on why Torquay United could be this season’s surprise package? If the price is right, I’m your man. I have a tea habit to support).

But on here. Well, what can a man do on his own fan blog if not bias? Indeed so.

So that’s it. You’re probably none-the-wiser but I do hope you’ll stop by again. I enjoyed this, I hope you did do. Let’s build a beautiful relationship here.

Gary

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