U's fan Chris Vessey talks to Oli South, 28, an Exeter City supporter living in London and currently working an application consultant.

CV - Are you happy with the start to the season?

Yes, the start has been promising. We have picked up points regularly and have only lost one game. Scoring goals through a natural goalscorer appears to be our problem, but we have been picking up goals all over the park.

CV - Was there any fear you could've have suffered a 'play-off hangover' like Halifax Town and Stevenage have done before you?

Yes, that is always a fear. Paul Tisdale himself mentioned this earlier this week. His way of avoiding this was to change a couple of key players, formation and tactics. The hangover appears to have been avoided and we are getting 2 points per game which is pleasing.

CV - Paul Tisdale had a tough job coming to Exeter, knowing the play-offs at least is most supporters expectations. Is he the right man to lead Exeter City into the Football League?

Since dropping out of the league we have had three managers, with the last two being poached by Premiership clubs. Eamo had the ability to motivate players to exceed themselves and was just what we needed to unite us all, his passion was infectious. Then we had Alex who could pick a player well and signed some great players, however his tactics were not widely received as the best.

Paul has set the standard now; with little pre-season last year he managed to take us to the play-offs. And now we are debt free and turning over decent money this has to be the minimum requirement.

I think setting the goal as automatic promotion is unrealistic with just one spot available. But I think if you make the play-offs for 2-3 seasons in a row you should go up. This season is made tougher by Torquay being here. Everyone will compare our season to theirs which is a bit unfair as it is not comparing like with like a lot of the time. We could get too preoccupied with what they are doing and not looking at ourselves.

CV - The new Setanta deal has caused much discussion at every club, and the Grecians have been featured heavily. How's the deal been taken at St. James' Park?

The deal has got a mixed reaction. The moving of games to ridiculous times is not well thought of, luckily ours have not been too bad. But the fact that the details of the deal are still a 'secret' is not well taken. We take a lot of money on hospitality and through the gates and the moving of games, i.e. York from a Saturday to a Monday can cost us a reasonable amount of money.

I have not seen it myself but the coverage has been impressive, with the exception of Paul Parker, and much better than that of Sky. The Setanta Shield will be interesting when the full details of that come out, it has 'Conference Cup' written all over it.

CV - Club favourite Paul Buckle left to manage your hated rivals Torquay, taking arguably your two best players. I take it the locals weren't very happy?

The loss of Todd and Phillips were not too bad. They were both high profile, but seeing as they were under contract it was Tisdale's decision to sell them and we got some cash along the way. Rumours have it that they asked for other players first and were turned down. We have replaced them with Matt Taylor who is more cultured that Todd and Basham from Oxford. The biggest loss to us from last season was Jon Challinor who said he was going to only leave us for a league team and then popped up at Rushden a few days later. Basham is probably more of a direct replacement for him.

CV - A couple of years ago the famous Manchester United FA Cup adventure banked you nearly a million pounds. Considering all the previous financial strife, is the fresh money being spent wisely?

The money from the Manchester games literally cleared our CVA which stood at about £750-800k. There was not a lot of change left from that, especially given we had to honour existing player contracts. However the games did leave us with about £0 which is better than most teams. Now almost all the old contracts have expired we are more in control.

All the players we have are signed while we have been in the conference and we have taken control of many other things. Under the guidance of the Trust and a very capable board of directors we have started to trade at a profit and have got some high profile sponsors on board.

CV - What has been your opinion of Cambridge United since we joined you in the Blue Square Premier?

Cambridge have always been a bogey team for us when away from home and last season changed that, hopefully forever. At home in the Blue Square Cambridge have been easy pickings. Personally I think they have underachieved since being relegated, but like a lot of teams they had a lot of off the pitch problems and the relegation offers a good chance for consolidation.

Jimmy Quinn appears to have put together a team this season and I think you could be making a play-off push this season. Cambridge away is a fantastic away day and hopefully it will remain on a Saturday.

CV - Who are your tips for promotion and relegation?

I think Stevenage will be the team to beat this season. The play-offs will be tough with Torquay, Cambridge, Exeter all in with a shout. I think Oxford could be the surprise to miss out, they lost a few good players last summer. Relegation will be the smaller part-time teams and the bottom four would probably not change too much from what it is now.

CV - And finally... what do you think the score will be on Saturday?

Being at home we should be looking to win this, but Cambridge have attacking options and we concede goals. I think it will be 2-1 to City. I think the first goal is crucial.

Many thanks to Oli for giving his time to answer these questions.

Chris Vessey

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