The preparations are all done and now Exeter City can turn their focus toward another thrill ride in Sky Bet League One.

The Grecians open their campaign with a trip to Wycombe Wanderers and will take great heart from a positive display before going down to a 2-1 defeat at home to Coventry City in the final game of a gruelling pre-season.

A superb crowd of more than 5,000 turned up at St James Park and they were treated to a match full of intensity and quality.

Both teams started with attacking intent but Coventry gradually began to exert some added pressure, forcing Viljami Sinsalo and Will Aimson into some heroic rearguard efforts to keep the scores level.

A sweetly-struck half-volley by Jack Aitchison tested the visiting goalkeeper before his opposite number, Sinsalo, produced a worldie of a save to deny the dangerous Matt Godden. He repeated the trick early in the second period.

The deadlock was finally broken on 67 minutes and Godden was the man in the right place, heading past a stranded Sinsalo from a corner. The City faithful were soon given a massive cheer, with Kyle Taylor making his long-awaited return from injury as a late substitute.

Ten minutes from time, Exeter levelled the scores with a fine goal from Rekeem Harper, who drifted a delightful ball in from the left that evaded everyone to nestle in the corner of the net.

A draw seemed like a fair outcome but Coventry pinched the win in the dying seconds, Ben Sheaf rifling home from distance, but still a very encouraging display for City, who will travel to Wycombe full of belief.

City manager Gary Caldwell summed up the display when talking to the club website: “Delighted, I thought it was another really difficult test against a team who were only one game away from going to the Premier League last season, so delighted with the problems that Coventry gave us.

“We were much better defensively, I still think there are improvements to be made higher up the pitch and how we go about that pressure, but I thought we were aggressive, and I thought we played on the front foot, we put them under pressure, we asked questions of them.”