Exeter City promoted to League One

It's after they beat Barrow 2-1 at St James Park

General view of St James Park home of Exeter City before their match against Crawley Town. 15th March 2022
Author: Sophie SquiresPublished 27th Apr 2022

Exeter City have secured a promotion from League Two, after beating Barrow 2-1 at St James Park.

A goal from Captain Matt Jay in the 78th minute was enough to bag the club three points to see them move up into League One - for the first time in 10 years.

The 26-year-old attacking midfielder said he's "over the moon":

"What a special moment for the club, for the fans, for the players, for the staff, and obviously myself.

"It's just been a brilliant season, thoroughly enjoyed it. Obviously we've got a couple of games left to go that we'll need to get out heads on. The title's still there if we want to go for it and I'm sure the manager will certainly want to, obviously we do as well of course.

"We were down and out in the first half until Kieran scored. To be fair to Barrow they were pretty good and made it very difficult for us and to score at around the 80th minute was fantastic."

Matt Jay - Exeter City FC

The hosts fell behind in the 11th minute after an own goal from Cameron Dawson, after Barrow's Remeao Hutton's long throw-in appeared to go straight in.

Kieran Phillips scored an equaliser in the 35th minute.

Fans couldn't contain their excitement, as they stormed the pitch to celebrate Exeter's promotion.

The club's manager, Matt Taylor, said so much hard work has gone into making last night's win happen: "To do it on our home patch - it wasn't a particularly pretty game of football, it was a difficult game - but to somehow find a way through, I think that typified what we've been this season.

"We've not got superstars on that football pitch, we've somehow got to grind out results and we found a way tonight to be successful and to see those scenes at the end - incredible."

Matt Taylor - Manager of Exeter City FC

A statement from the club simply reads: "UP THE CITY, PASS IT ON!"

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