Next Up: Exeter City vs Bolton Wanderers

The uncertainty surrounding the manager’s position at City goes on, with no news at the time of writing about whether the position is about to be filled. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that Dan Green and Kevin Nicholson will continue in the dugout on Saturday. Hat-trick hero Jayden Wareham limped off shortly after completing his record-breaking treble, but there was no hint that this would rule him out. Elsewhere Jack McMillan’s return was a welcome boost, while City gave some minutes to Charlie Cummins having recalled him from his loan at Weston-Super-Mare. There is potentially bad news, on the other hand, regarding Reece Cole, with rumours abound that his season is over. Green and Nicholson have tweaked the formation somewhat with two up front, Sonny Cox partnering Wareham in the 3-3 draw at Peterborough and Josh Magennis getting the start against Wycombe.

As always amongst the promotion favourites, Bolton have, like City, become draw specialists in recent games with their last three matches finishing level. This has meant the Trotters have dropped off the pace behind runaway leaders Cardiff and Lincoln and, with 12 matches to go, means Stephen Schumacher’s side will need to treat each game as “must win” if they are to make up the ten point gap to Lincoln. Like City, Bolton have lost just once in the league in 2026 and are unbeaten in their last nine matches. Schumacher was very busy in January with a number of ins and outs, including some players of proven quality at this level in Jack Bonham, Rob Apter and Corey Blackett-Taylor. The main goal scoring threat this season has been from Mason Burstow (ten in the league) and Sam Dalby (ten overall), but one player who won’t be featuring is ex-City winger Joel Randall, who joined Blackpool on loan during the transfer window.

Bolton dominated the reverse fixture in winning 2-1, although City took a surprise lead in the first half through a long-range Jack Aitchison effort. Dalby and Gale got the goals in the second half to secure the points. Bolton won by the same scoreline in somewhat controversial circumstances. City again took the lead through Mitchell, only for Collins and Morley (his second injury time winner against City in a matter of days having done the same for loan side Wycombe) while an announcement was taking place regarding racist abuse from the away end towards Josh Magennis. While City have recorded two wins in away fixtures in recent years, you have to go back to 1991 for a City win at SJP in this fixture, and as a result Bolton have established a healthy league head to head lead with ten wins to City’s four and five draws.

The match officials for this game will be:-

Referee: Craig Hicks
Assistant Referees: Andy Bennett and Alex Bradley
Fourth Official : James Hooper

Craig Hicks took charge of an Exeter game earlier in the season when we lost 2-1 away at Stevenage. He’s also taken charge of an Exeter versus Bolton game back in April 2023 when City lost 1-0 at St James Park. His stats for this season are: Taken charge of 23 games, shown 64 yellow cards and not sent any player off.

Interview with interim manager Dan Green

Interview with Ilmari Niskanen