Does this mean we're better than Spurs? Does this mean Yeovil should be in the Champions League?

The Exeter City enigma continues. After turning in a fabulous performance against Leeds, we concede two soft goals and lose to Yeovil. This is why you see so many bald fans at St James Park.

In a way, Huish Park sums up the story of our season. We go behind, often to a stupid goal, then start playing good football, attack, score one, then go behind against the run of play. We're nearly there, but at the moment not quite good enough, but when we hook it up together, we're very good indeed.

I said at the start of the season, we couldn't go through the season losing games and congratulating ourselves for playing well, which is currently what we're doing.

A win yesterday would have seen us move up into mid-table. Instead we're back to just three points ahead of the relegation zone. That said, we have the ability, quality and manager to stay up. The question is, do we have the consistency?

In fairness, a point away at Yeovil wouldn't have been a bad result, given our respective forms at home and on the road, and one most City fans would have probably settled for. It does put slightly more pressure onto Tuesday's game at home to Carlisle. Lose it, and Leeds really will have counted for nothing.

Still, there are positives. Post-match, Terry Skiverton, the Yeovil boss (who has really impressed an surprised this season) paid complement to Alex Russell. And then there's Stanno, who is fast becoming a City legend.

Another goal, this one against his old club (which he had the class not to celebrate) and continues to put everything into every second he is on the pitch. If only some of our other forwards put in as much effort as Adam, we'd be safe by now. What a player.

So, like we say, City are close to being there without every quite finding the map to wherever 'there' is. And we definitely need reinforcements now, as Troy Archibald-Henville is on his way back to Spurs after playing his last game for us.

As we've said before, we at HaL have mixed feelings over Troy. On one hand, he has a natural talent, great pace and can certainly make a tackle. On the other, he's not exactly improved since he arrived on loan a year ago and suffers lapses when it comes to decision making and concentration.

It's also strange that he doesn't like playing with Matt Taylor as part of a partnership. In all honestly, he's had enough time to try and adjust. But then a central defence partnership is as important as a good strike partnership and it may be they're just too similar.

So, you can see, for every positive about Troy, there's a negative and so on. Apparently we had the option to sign him permanently. I wouldn't have been adverse to that. I wouldn't have been adverse to extending his loan. But I'm not disappointed that he's gone back to Spurs. If that all makes sense.

But this does mean that, with Danny Seaborne also gone, we're very short of cover at centre-half options to partner Captain Taylor.

Sir Big Rob Edwards is always there, even if he's minus two teeth following the Leeds game. But he is 37 and it'd be a stretch to ask him to play every game. Great, legendary player that he is, it's inevitable he will occasionally get caught out at this level. Not that I'll ever complain when his name is on the team sheet.

That leaves our other options as the highly-rated yet completely untested Scott Bennett, currently on loan at Weymouth, Richard Duffy, who isn't really a centre-back, and Joe Burnell, who is a central midfielder and may not actually exist. Yep, we need another defender.

We could also do with a winger, preferably the excellent Craig Noone. But then we could always do with a winger. It's like saying a homeless man could do with a roof over his head.

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Ryan Harley is a bearded ginger wizard

The game is tense, five minutes to go as Exeter City look to hold onto a 1-0 lead against league leaders Leeds when suddenly, out of nothing, Ryan Harley swivels on the ball and coolly rifles an unstoppable shot into the top corner to send City 2-0 up and Grecians fans worldwide into raptures.

This is not a dream, although HaL certainly went to bed dreaming of it last night. And when Harley, who rarely seems to make connection between the very top half of his body and the ball, gets a headed goal for City's first you know some kind of strange parallel universe has just invaded and made things a bit messed up.

Quite simply, after today, Ryan Harley is a God and I'll take on any atheists who disagree with me. Some things are worth starting religious wars over.

HaL, sadly, couldn't be at the game but did manage to haul its arse down to Tooting & Mitcham versus Billericay Town, where regular text updates kept us warm at a freezing Imperial Fields.

Dragging things back down to earth for a moment, who in their wildest dreams, expected us to beat Leeds. This is Leeds, you know, probably the best team in the division, slayers of Manchester United in the cup and, er, drawers with Wycombe Wanderers the game before. Hmmm.

That last result certainly gave encouragement. Wycombe are poor, so that was a hell of a result for them. Would we get a backlash or, with Leeds' eye on a fourth round tie against Spurs and Beckford in sulk mode, was there to be a chance for us? I was confident enough to predict a 1-1 draw on Gnet, but no more.

There's also been a sense of recent weeks that we're not far from one really good result and if we clicked that could come sometime soon. We were all probably thinking the Westcountry derby with Yeovil would be the place.

So, huge credit to all the players yesterday and for Tis for getting his tactics spot on. I'm only going by second hand reports here, but it sounds like the entire team was immense with Harley, Captain Taylor, and Big Sir Rob Edwards outstanding. Heroes, one and all.

But let's also put a sense of perspective into this. The win will count for nothing with we lose our next two games away at Yeovil and at home to Carlisle. Any kind of result against Leeds is a wonderfully joyous and unexpected bonus. But points against teams in the bottom half of the table are just as, if not more important.

After all, a win against Leeds followed by two losses still reads W1 L2, no matter how big that win is in terms of stature. Let's hope the players carry this on to Huish Park next weekend.

***

A few bits and bobs from the land of City that have occurred since the last update; bits and bobs that are almost pointless to write about because you probably all know about them already, but we're going to write about them anyway and pretend we know what we're talking about.

We lost to Norwich last week. You knew that. It was cold and rather snowy and yet somehow the game went ahead and we conceded three soft goals. Ah well, onwards and upwards to Leeds. Ah, yeah, we've already done that. Bloody brilliant, innit. Did I mention we beat the league leaders 2-0?

Then there's the loss of Danny Seaborne to Southampton for an undisclosed fee. I've mixed feeling about this. On one hand, Danny has really knuckled down this season and fought hard to retain his place. He's been a much improved player and, at 22, the young centre half could have stayed with us an improved even further.

On the other hand, he could also be shocking. For whatever reason, his head got turned last season and his form was poor. And even this season his distribution still leaves a lot to be desired and he's prone to one dozy moment in the game.

But, on balance, I'd rather have kept Danny at St James Park, as he could have been a key member of our squad in seasons to come. Then again, perhaps he needed a chance of scenery to truly kick on. We wish him the best at Southampton and hope he soon becomes another youth graduate playing in the Championship or higher.

What is definitely means is we need another centre-half, otherwise we just have Matt Taylor, Sir Rob and possibly Troy and youngster Scott Bennett.

Of more concern is rumours QPR are interested in Paul Jones. If he goes we're truly doomed.

Ok, that's maybe an exaggeration, but Jones is one of the best goalkeepers we've had in a long time and, at 23, keeps improving. It's no surprising other teams are looking at him. Hopefully Paul Hart's departure from QPR means they'll drop their interest in him.

Andy Marriott's a capable deputy but he's 39 and there's only a certain amount of time he can play for before his body decides no more.

Yeah, can we add a goalkeeper to that shopping list please?

PS Did I mention we beat Leeds 2-0?

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The eternal winter of the soul, plus hear HaL TALK about Exeter City

At the moment, Exeter's game at Norwich is one of only two games in the whole of League One that's on. Hardy people, these Norfolkonians. Anybody betting it'll get called off just as HaL pulls into Norwich train station?

In fairness, it sounds like the clubs' going everything to keep the game on and the pitch is looking good. We'll just have to hope the -7C temperatures tonight don't freeze everything.

Game-wise, the Canaries have come a long way since we drew with them in the second game of the season. Bumbling yet legendary shop assistant Bryan Gunn has departed the managerial hotseat and Paul Lambert has given the club a realistic chance of promotion.

But wait, what's this? Lambert is being lined up to take over from Owen Coyle at Burnely? Two moves in one season? Seriously, I moved less regularly than that when I was an impoverished student.

Not that it'll affect them too much, I wouldn't have thought. from our perspective any kind of result, even if it's a turgid 0-0 draw where the players simply pass in triangles for the whole game, would be welcome.

Deep down in my bones, I have a feeling we may just get something out of this. But then my predictions are often useless. The only thing that can be said with any certainty is that Marrrrrrcus Stewwwaarrrrrrtt will get a rather hostile reception from the locals.

And on that note, HaL was asked to give sensible opinions, always dangerous, on BBC Norfolk's The Scrimmage last night. Click 16 minutes into the show to listen to me waffle wildly inaccurate predictions.

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Well, that was as shocking as the new Pope revealing his religion

As speculated earlier, David Noble has become City's first signing of the transfer window.

The good news: he's a highly rated player who Bristol City fans would love to see playing for them in the Championship.

The bad news: he's injured for another two months. And he's a central midfielder, and we currently have 27 of them on our books.

Perhaps he'll become Exeter's Aquilani.

On a slightly more serious level, he's a quality player and it probably does no harm to sign him up now as he'll be in demand come the summer when he's over his injury (probably). And he a more experienced replacement for Harley, assuming Harley goes either this month or in the summer.

And if he's back in two months, he could still play a part in this season.

On the other hand, he's injured. Did we mention that?

If this is the only signing of January, we'll be worried. But we have a feeling it isn't. Hopefully.

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Won't somebody shut that flaming window? It's cold in here

Welcome to the month of the year where it's your official duty as an Exeter City fan, to worry, fret, cry and panic at our lack of signings and players who are going to be sold ahead of our inevitable relegation at the end of the season before demanding the head of the management and board and demanding an Exeter City-supporting billionaire come in and fund our drive to the Premier League and if we lose narrowly to Manchester United and Chelsea at any point then SACK EVERYBODY BECAUSE IT'S JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

And breathe.

Yes, the transfer window is upon us and the bi-annual dose of headless chickeness has arrived in Devon as we slide into January, hardly helped by the complete lack of football in the last week (yeah, thanks for that Franchise FC. Did you enjoy getting beaten by Burnley? Did you? Not that I'm bitter or anything).

If we're compiling a theoretical shopping list then a winger, a centre-half and a goalscoring striker would be top of them, but realistically we'll probably get a couple of kids on loan and sign another central midfielder. Plus, the squad, especially up front, if looking a bit top-heavy so we could do with trimming a few here and there.

In terms of outgoing, Ryan Harley is attracting a fair bit of interest from Plymouth and other Championship clubs. Hopefully he's got more sense than to sign for a soon-to-be relegated club but it wouldn't be a shock if he went.

The ginger midfield maestro has come in for criticism from the boo boys of late, but he still remains one of our most talented players and is capable of changing a game (and hasn't been as bad as people suggest). He would be missed, but is replaceable, and it may even free up Russell.

Danny Seaborne is the other player attracting admiring glances from, if the papers are to be believed, Norwich (we knew about this one) and, er Leicester. Yes, seriously, Leicester. That Championship club that ain't doing too badly like Danny. Now we like Danny and think he's come on leaps and bounds, but Championship standard at the moment? I guess he's young...

If Danny does go, and as he's out of contract in the summer that wouldn't be a surprise, then a centre-half is a priority, especially with the uncertainty over whether Troy's staying or not. Big Rob Edwards is a City legend, but it's a bit much to ask him to fill in for the rest of the season.

On the other outgoing you could offload Burnell (who?) any of the strikers bar Stanno, Logie and Marcus Stewart and free up a bit more space. Yes, even Macca and Watson, who HaL has a lot of time for. Sadly Watson's loan to Forest Green's been scuppered by yet another injury. You've got to feel for him, as he's been desperately unlucky with injuries.

What's more likely, though, is the players will go out on loan (or stay on loan in Macca and Manny Panther's case). Depending of wage agreements, that may free up a bit of space. Or we may let them go for free.

But, like Tis, I'm not a great advocate of shaking up the squad for the shape of it and agree that more bad decisions that good are done in January. That said, we could do with just a couple of extra players.

The official site has said we'll announce a new signing at the end of today. Popular money is one ex-Bristol City midfielder David Noble, who'd be a decent signing if he's injury free now. Craig Noone back on loan is another whisper and that would be an awesome signing and would warm HaL's cockles on a bloody freezing day.

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