Butcher's Exeter Reaction

Matt Butcher was not necessarily supposed to take the corner from which he scored the winning goal against Exeter City.

Argyle won the Devon Derby 1-0 thanks to the midfielder's effort, in which he took a corner short to Niall Ennis, whose return pass offered a better angle for Butcher to shoot. His drilled effort took a deflection and flew home, sending Pilgrims everywhere into raptures.

It was, though, a half-time tweak by Argyle assistant manager Mark Hughes, who has a particular eye on the Pilgrims’ set pieces, that meant Butcher was the man who stood by the flag after Joe Edwards had earned the corner.

Butcher takes up the story: “I'd love to take all the credit, but at half-time Mark Hughes said that no-one was marking Niall on the keeper. We had originally anticipated someone would, so we said if he could come off the keeper, I could just roll it into his feet and he should be able to wriggle, do what he is good at and return it to the corner taker and luckily it was my side.

“I managed to get the shot off in the end and I’m obviously delighted to get the goal. It’s a massive goal in a game like this.”

Exeter probably had the better of the first third of the game, with Argyle keeping solid and stifling City’s good attacking players. As the game progressed, Argyle seemed to get stronger, and Butcher feels that the team effort that was the focus going in to the game was still the talking topic coming out.

“It was massive today,” he said. “I think we delivered what we needed to.

“We needed to see today what we pride ourselves on, and that's being a team. That's what we've done all season. We've always responded well to defeats or poor performances, and that's not down to individuals. That's down to the group.

“It was quite a scrappy game; It was always going to be. We know we needed to battle well, and I thought that was our outstanding part of our game today. Not anything special as individuals on the ball as much, but we did the basics right.

“We knew their threats. We knew they were going to be dangerous. There's not many games this season where we haven't looked like we're going to score. Having that clean sheet obviously put us in a great position to go and take one of our chances.

“I thought we managed the game really well. There were always going to be periods where their crowd's going to be up. It doesn't take much to get ours up as well, especially in a game like this.

“That was our message. There are periods in the game where we're going to have to weather, and I think we didn't panic. We stuck to our game plan and it paid off in the end.”

Hampshire-born Butcher became a Pilgrim in the summer, and no-one would pretend that his childhood was filled with memories of Devon Derbies of yore, but he is smart enough to understand what the game means to all in green and white, and says that general experience in football can prepare you for the type of atmosphere the game was sure to produce.

“Everyone, wherever you've grown up - up north, down south, wherever - you can relate to a derby,” said Matt. “It's about trying to remember those games, remember those emotions because they're the experiences that, although you don't see it at the time, when it comes round, you really need to look back and take it into these games.

“That's what's what we dream of as a kid: playing in derbies, playing in atmospheres like this - and scoring makes it even better.

“I thought [the Green Army] were amazing again. That was a big part of it. If we can get them going and silence the other side - which we did - we're always going to get a chance and we're always going to get opportunities.

“The fans can enjoy their day and so they should.”