Sweeney hopes for cheers and boos on Exeter return

Cheltenham Town defender Pierce Sweeney says he is looking forward to hopefully getting "cheered and booed" when he returns to former club Exeter City on Saturday. Sweeney left the Grecians after a decade this summer, having made 435 appearances and been club captain. The 32-year-old turned down the offer of a new contract to stay at Exeter to move up the M5 to the Robins, where he has since played 16 games. "I owe an awful lot to them, they gave me my first chance in the EFL, in men's first-team football," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire. "It was a fantastic journey for me and that football club together, I'll always have an affiliation with the club and there's always a lot of love there. "I'm looking forward to competing against them, I'm looking forward to being an opposition player in the stadium, I'm looking forward to hopefully getting cheered and booed as well." 'Legend' Sweeney enters decade of service at Exeter Sweeney reflects on 300 games for Exeter City Sweeney joined Exeter from Reading in 2016 and was part of the side that won promotion to League One in 2023. After spending so long at St James Park, he said it will be strange to return and as part of the travelling team, using the away changing room. "The build-up's going to be a bit different," he said. "Being in a hotel before the game in a place I spent so long." Sweeney has however returned to the club once since leaving, taking advantage of a Tuesday night in September where Cheltenham were not playing to watch Exeter play Tottenham Under-21s while on a visit to Devon with his family. Yet he said he has been trying to keep the emotional side out of the game on Saturday, when the two sides meet for the first time this campaign in League Two. "When anyone tries to talk to me about it I put it to the back burner," he said. "Five, 10 minutes before kick-off it'll probably be a bit different and once I get on the pitch I'll do whatever needs to be done, it's business as usual. "They'll want to beat me and I'll want to beat them." Cheltenham go into the match fifth in the table, two points but seven places higher than their opponents. Sweeney says he sees similarities between the two outfits, pointing to the four years fan-owned Exeter spent in League One before their relegation in May, where they had one of the smallest budgets. Cheltenham also spent three years in the third tier, a stay which ended in 2024. This season, under Steve Cotterill, have enjoyed their best start to a campaign in recent years and Sweeney believed there is no reason the club cannot aim high. "We spent four years in League One at Exeter as underdogs every week and we overachieved," he said. "We achieved unbelievable things at that club and I don't see why we can't do that at this football club "Coming into this season we were probably one of the favourites to be at the bottom. "Recruitment's been brilliant and the manager's got the bit in his teeth to do really well - there's no doubt the ambition, the drive is still there for him."