Exeter City boss Matt Taylor eyes League Two success before stars move on
- Published
Homegrown Exeter City captain Matt Jay scored for the fifth successive game at Salford City, taking his tally to 10 goals in 17 games
Exeter City manager Matt Taylor wants his talented young players to bring success to his side before they progress to other clubs.
City extended their unbeaten run to a club-record 15 games after a stoppage time goal saw them beat Salford City.
The victory kept Exeter in fourth place in League Two, a point off the automatic promotion places.
"We've got a fantastic group of players, two or three of those players will be outstanding players," he said.
"We'll lose them. The [Sam] Nombe's of the world, the Matt Jay's of this world, the Josh Key's, the Alex Hartridge's because they'll move on from our football club to another level, but whilst they are here it would be great if they could try and get a bit of success for this football club."
Exeter have lost the League Two play-off final in three of the past five seasons and missed the top seven by one point in 2019 and three points last season.
The club has had an excellent record in selling players developed at the club.
Joel Randall, Ryan Bowman, Ben Chrisene, Jayden Stockley and Jordan Storey have all left for big fees in the past four seasons while England's Ollie Watkins and Wales midfielder Ethan Ampadu also came through City's academy system.
"We've been so close for the last six years, three play-off finals, there's no closer than that, there's no reason why we can't keep pushing towards the top seven," Taylor added.
"That's our aim, top seven's always our aim, if we get close to the top three we'll assess it.
"But we won't be able to strengthen as much in January because financially we can't do that unless I sell another player.
"We sell another player then my squad's weaker again - we did it with Joel Randall at the start of the season and we've done it time and time again.
"You're always battling against what's the best outcome for Exeter City, maybe the best outcome would be selling two or three players and keeping the club going because we've got no money, we're owned by the Trust, or we challenge for promotion.
"But I don't want us to be a nearly team this season."