2025 will mark ten years of Pierce Sweeney at Exeter City, with the Irishman’s testimonial year a chance to celebrate a captain, a leader and a legend of our football club.
From a spritely 21-year-old that joined in 2016, to now part of the furniture at St James Park, Sweeney has sat down to look back on reflect on his decade at the club that began with a flight paid out of his own pocket and led him on a journey from Wembley heartbreak to promotion elation, with all the ups and downs in between. Speaking candidly about his time as a Grecian, Sweeney is excited for the year ahead.
“It’s crazy to think I have been here for ten years and it has been a really good time at the club. It is going to be a really exciting summer ahead which has been a few months in the planning and I’m really looking forward to the year ahead,” he said of his testimonial year.
“For any young player coming to a Championship club to a League Two club you would kind of automatically expect yourself to climb back up the ladder, and I was no different. I expected to go elsewhere but I didn’t and I’m really happy that I stayed here. I got to a stage maybe six or seven years in where I had this as a goal.
“This ten year thing is special, and it’s a little bit unique at football clubs and testimonials don’t come around very often. I think nowadays you only see players staying at clubs for one or two years, so I think the position I'm in now is quite unique. And I'm thankful to previous managers for keeping me, thankful for the club for backing me. It’s going to be a special, special mark in my career.”
Sweeney’s journey to EX4 began as a result of his departure from Reading and a phone call that would change the trajectory of his career. The offer of a chance to show Exeter City what he can do was swiftly taken up, buying his own flight over from Ireland – which he was quick to note he still hasn’t been reimbursed for!
“I remember very well I got released from Reading. The manager at the time, Brian McDermott gave Paul Tisdale a call and he had already spoke to Jake Taylor [who had also played at Reading]. Tis was interested in me already. Brian just rang him and gave him his word that I was worth his time and I organized to come over. I used to have this conversation with him a lot about he doesn't like calling it a trial. I just came over just to kind of see the club, see the people, spend preseason together, and thankfully it worked out.”
After impressing at the Cliff Hill Training Ground, Tisdale handed Sweeney a contract and after pen was put to paper, he was handed the prestigious no.31 shirt, funded by the 1931 Fund supporters group, who pay a portion of the wages for that player. Though the honour initially went under the Irishman’s radar, he soon understood the importance of the shirt and passed his knowledge onto the next set of players lucky enough to be given the number.
“This club a little different to what you know, what you've been used to but I didn't actually realize until a couple of years later,” he said.
“I think being so young and coming into a new football club, and understanding what that was, I didn't quite know there and then, but I think as the years went on, I understood how big of a thing it was for the club. Pretty much the fans are paying 80-90% of your wage. So it's the shirt that is a little bit heavier, and I was lucky enough to wear that. And years after that, I tried to explain to players who wore that shirt what it meant to fans.
“I think if you're a fan and you pay money into that, I think number 31 was always the number shirt that you look out for. I had a decent first season, and I think I wore a shirt with pride, and I think the fans could have been happy with my performances that year.”
Sweeney’s maiden goal as City’s no.31 came away at Forest Green in a 3-1 win, and was the first of 22 he has registered in red and white so far. Reflecting on that moment, and some of his strikes for the club, he looked back fondly as well what he considered his ‘best’ goal out of the bunch.
“I'll never forget that because I played with Lee Holmes that year, and he was a fantastic player, and I was lucky enough to run to him and celebrate when I scored that goal. So that was nice.
“The best goal was the home to Cheltenham though. That was a nice goal. I'll obviously never let live down the penalty miss against Notts County when I was on for a hat trick. I was absolutely devastated! But I think my first goal was obviously the most memorable. I haven't scored any big occasion goals.
“I haven't scored any playoff goals, or anything like that. So yeah, probably my first goal was the best.”
The subject of play-offs is always a tetchy point of discussion for Exeter City supporters, given the three defeats in four years that the club suffered between 2016 and 2020. One of the only members of the squad to have been a part of the three failed play-off campaigns, Sweeney naturally has bad memories of what is considered the football ‘lottery,’ but, in review, feels the club is in a better place now than had they taken the step up to League One in any of those campaigns.
“To be honest with you, we weren't ready. We came up against two juggernauts in Coventry City and Blackpool. And look where Coventry have gone to, and Blackpool have stayed in League One, and been the Championship a couple of times.
“I think, as a football club, had we got promoted it probably would have backfired on us. We were kind of old in age and squad, and we had some really young, young lads on loan, so we probably weren't quite ready. They were disappointing days but great occasions, as it was great to be involved in the play-off finals and play-off campaigns, but bitterly disappointed to lose. But I think it was a blessing in disguise for us as a club.”
It wouldn’t be long though before Sweeney and his teammates would finally achieve the promotion that was ten years in the making for the Grecians, having battled in the fourth tier for almost a decade. One of the most iconic photos of the joyous post-promotion scenes is a jubilant Sweeney spraying champagne. Of all the club’s promotion heroes that season, few had felt the heartbreak of previous seasons more than Sweeney, and he recalls the evening as his ‘proudest moment.’
“The season finished with disappointment by losing the title and goal difference, but I don't think we probably should have been anywhere near did the title, because Forest Green were 15 points clear one stage and they kind of fell apart a little bit. It was one obviously a season we'll remember for the rest of our lives. I think when you when you achieve something with a group of players, you always have that tighter connection with them."
“And I think the only, again, the only disappointment from that game against Barrow was, I wish it was on a Saturday night, because we could have had a three day bender and not just one night in Timepiece! I was happy we could get over the line and no better man to score the goal than MJ [Matt Jay].”
When Jay departed Exeter City in January 2023, midway through the club’s first League One campaign in ten years, there was little doubt about who would be handed the armband by manager Gary Caldwell. “He has been the captain when MJ was out so he is my captain for the foreseeable future,” the Scot said when choosing his new leader.
“I was really honoured to be asked to be captain as it was something I always saw myself doing, something I always felt comfortable in,” he explained.
“I played under three previous captains at the club, and all were very different. And I've tried to take my own style in that and kind of style from managers. Matt Taylor was obviously captain and then the manager. Now we have Gary, he was obviously a captain at a high level as well. So I've got an awful lot of different personalities there and different captain styles.
“I'm trying to do my own style, but we'll take little bits of who I've been involved with previously. It's gone okay so far and hopefully we can kind of kick on again the next couple of years and achieve something better.”
It goes without saying that after such a long time with the club, Sweeney has become a fan favourite, demonstrating a relationship with the supporters like no other. Always having time for the fans is a big part of who ‘our Sweenz’ is, though it certainly had not been the smoothest of journeys to legend status.
“Let's be honest about a young, high headed Pierce Sweeney giving fans a little bit of lip back when I probably shouldn't have been!” he recalls of his earliest memories at the club.
“But I think that's what's kind of brought us together. I always, always try and find time for the fans. I've got a really good connection with a lot of fans on a personal level I think when a football player has been here for as long as I have, the fans always kind of feel that love, feel the connection, and I definitely can feel that from them as well. I’m happy how our relationship has blossomed. It took a rocky start, but I'm happy where we're at now!”
In the ever evolving world of football, both directly at Exeter City and the wider sporting environment, Sweeney has been a constant and has perhaps seen more changes at the club than most. From two new stands at St James Park to a multi-million pound training ground improvement, aspects of the club are wildly unrecognisable to the side Sweeney joined in 2016, but he believes the possibilities are endless as the club continues to strive for sustainable third tier football.
“The training ground is obviously the biggest, and the stadium. The two stands are obviously completely different now and changing rooms. I think if seven, eight years ago, we had been promoted to League One, and we tried to attract players to this football club and we showed them the training ground and showed them the stadium back then, I don't think we probably would have got players we've had over the last couple of years.
“That's testament to the football club. With the investment we’ve had done in player sales, I think an awful lot of other football clubs would have thrown the money away on different and various things. We've been very clever with how we've spent the money.
“I think the ambition has been driven by the manager now. I think some people will probably have been a little bit afraid to set our goals as high as the manager does. And I think he's come in and driven that forward to the football club.
“It’s our fourth season in League One and I think the ambition is there and I think as a football club, we shouldn't be scared about that.”
Home is where the heart is, and though he may hail from just south of Dublin, Exeter is firmly place that Sweeney has settled. Now with a partner and two young children, the football club has been there during some of the most important parts of his life. Not even long trips on the M5 have swayed Sweeney away from Devon, a place where he still very much sees his future.
“I think when you've when you bring up a young family in a place, I think you've got no choice but to call a home. It'll never be my home, home. But I think it would take something special to take me from here.
“My kids are settled. Me, my partner settled. I've got a home here. I'm really, really settled now and really love the area. It's just a bit of a trek after a heavy away trip - that's the only downfall! I’m so happy to be to be based in Devon now.”
So what does that future look like for the now 30-year-old?
“People over the last two or three years have always been asking me “well, what am I going to do after football?” I was a little bit naive to kind of give an answer,” he said.
“I've done my first set of coaching badges. I'll spend this year kind of doing a little bit of coaching in the academy, on the sides, in the evenings, and look to do my A Licence. Then when the time comes to hang up the boots in ten years or so, I'll see what's available, hopefully, for this football club. Who knows?
“It depends how the club is at that point. But it's something I'm passionate about. It's something I've dedicated my whole life to. So I think I'd be a little bit silly if I didn't give it a crack. Coaching will be my next step. And if that's to become a manager somewhere, we'll see. But I want to be a coach first and foremost. I've started the process now.”
Coach Sweeney? Yes please.