Grecians Beaten by Disputed Penalty Kick:

Saturday, March 16th 1912.
SOUTHERN LEAGUE:
BRIGHTON v EXETER CITY

BRIGHTON 2 EXETER CITY 1
Last season: City 2 Brighton 0.
In 1909-10: Brighton 2 City 1.

The visit of Exeter City to Brighton aroused great interest locally, and a crowd of about four thousand was present. Brighton were at their full strength, but the City were minus two of their best forwards, Garside through sickness, and Rutter because of a family bereavement. Prideaux was also absent, and places were found for Parnell, Lockett, and Rigby. Teams:

BRIGHTON: Whiting Routledge Leeming Booth McGhie Higham Needham Longstaff Smith Webb Goodwin
Referee: Mr. Smith, of Doncaster.
EXETER CITY: Whittaker (W) Evans Fort Bassett Pratt Rigby Parnell Cornan Watson Lockett Whittaker (E)

A delightful morning was followed by a dull afternoon, and a strong breeze sprang up. Brighton won the toss, but there was no sun, and the wind blew diagonally across the ground, so there was very little advantage to either side.

THE GAME.
It was a stubbornly contested game at Goldstone Road. Exeter, although weakened by the absence of three of their best players, thoroughly extended the and were defeated only by a goal from a penalty, the justice of which they keenly disputed. The pace was fast throughout, and with both teams cultivating an open game the football was brimful of incident. The Albion made a promising start, for play had only been in progress for nine minutes when Needham broke away and centred for Goodwin to rush the ball through. Exeter retaliated with spirit, and after Whiting had fielded a curling shot from the right wing Watson forced an opening and levelled the scores with a high cross drive from twenty-five yards out. This was four minutes after the Brighton goal. What proved to be the deciding goal came when play had been in progress for twenty minutes. Evans, in tackling Smith, handled the ball, and although the City protested on the grounds that it was entirely accidental, and that no advantage had been gained by the handling, the referee ordered a penalty kick to Brighton. Webb was entrusted with the kick and he made no mistake, scoring with a low drive right into the bottom corner.
Half-time: Brighton 2 City 1.
Subsequently the City did a fair measure of attacking, but the forwards, although swift in their approach work, failed when it came to shooting, there being insufficient "sting" behind their efforts. Just before time they claimed a penalty for hands against Routledge, but Mr Smith refused it. For a good part of the second half Brighton were on the attack, but like Exeter, their shooting was weak and W. Whittaker was seldom in any difficulty.

CITY RESERVES v MILLBROOK RANGERS.

The City Reserves were engaged today at St. James's Park, in a Plymouth and District League match against Millbrook, a club which in late years has always put up a good show in the competition. Showers of heavy rain preceded the match, and the crowd was not a big one, no doubt in consequence of the unsettled weather. The teams lined up as follows:

Reserves: Pym; Godbere, Clarke; Martin, Prideaux, Griffiths; Arscott, Lewis, Bailey, Addi cott, and Labbett.

Rangers: Moore; Horswell, Tapson; Woolley, Rutland, Hopper; Gosling, Baker, Symons, Williams, and Downs.

Moore, the Cornish County goalkeeper, beat Martin in the toss, and elected to play towards the city end. It was 3.50 when play commenced, owing to the late arrival of the visitors. It was a wild and scrambling sort of game which the City eventually won by a goal, scored by Lewis after 75 minutes, to nothing.

Wednesday, March 20th 1912.
Friendly Match, at St. James's Park. City v Plymouth Argyle.

EXETER CITY 1 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE O. The friendly game at Exeter, on behalf of the Exeter City players' wages fund, was a pleasant and interesting one, but rather slow. Lewis scored for the Grecians midway through the first half, Horne being forced over his line after he had stopped the shot. Kirkpatrick found the net for the Argyle in the second half but the referee had already whistled for a foul.

City: Pym; Fort, Evans; Rigby, Pratt, Griffiths; E.Whittaker, Lewis, Bassett, Lockett, and Parnell.
Argyle:- Horne; Forbes, Butler; Malcolm, Wilcox, Baker; Kirkpatrick, Sutherland, Boden, Dixon, and Holden.