Exeter City Lose Their Ground Record
First Defeat at Home: Grecians and the South Wales Bogey

SATURDAY JANUARY 4TH

EXETER CITY (Ives, Brooksbank) 2
MERTHYR TOWN (Jordan 2, Simons, Taylor) 4

Referee: Mr H.Thompson, of London. Attendance: 4,000.
Score at half-time:- 2 - 2.

Exeter City Pym Fort Hurst Rigby Lagan Lockett Whittaker Cooper Rutter
Brooksbank Ives 

Merthyr Town Burrows McCormick White Craig Gates Churchill Gimblett Jordan Simons Lowe Taylor

A solemn warning should be issued to Conductor George Newman and his Band to the effect that if they are ever caught on or within the vicinity of the St. James's Park pitch again playing "Land of My Fathers" they will immediately forfeit possession of their musical instruments and be held to have deserved what ever summary violence the supporters of the "Grecians" may deem fit to meet out to them. It would be deeply regrettable if
either Mr Newman or his bandsmen came to any untimely end, but this contingency certain awaits them if they again offend with the Welsh air, which they played on the occasion of the Cardiff cup-tie defeat, and were unthinking enough to inflict upon the crowd at St. James's Park at half-time today.
The South Wales Bogey.
This South Wales business is getting a perfect "bogey" as far as the Grecians are concerned, and after today's fiasco Exonians can well be pardoned if they despair of the City ever beating a Welsh club. The Cup disasters against Merthyr and Cardiff were bad enough, but nobody on earth would have thought that the men from Merthyr Tydfil would have come to St. James's Park, and not only smash the ground record, but score as many goals as all the previous visiting clubs had done between them in the first half of the season. Yet it not only took place, but there was no manner of fluke about it, either. Merthyr fully deserved their win because they took their chances when within shooting range, and on the wet pitch they slung the ball about with long passes, and always played the sort of game best suited to the circumstances. The City's defeat can be ascribed to errors in tactics, also to the fine goalkeeping of Burrows. The old Southampton man put up a show which was at once as brilliant as it was risky. He was not afraid to take flying kicks at a slippery ball, which many times would have brought disaster to his side, but in this case they came off, and apart from his risky clearances he made many excellent saves. In the half hour of the first half when Exeter were playing up to their real standard Burrows alone held them at bay.
Wrong Tactics.
If Exeter had kept up the form they were showing before the interval they might still have won, for even goalkeeping like that of Burrows has its limitations, and he could not have gone on to play the Grecians on his own for another three quarters of an hour. Exeter, however, opened the second half in a less aggressive style, and when the Welshmen again began to get their share of the play the Grecians adopted wrong tactics, and these methods were responsible for the home record being lost. They kept the ball altogether too close, they "starved" the most dangerous forward, Whittaker, and the defence gave Taylor and Gimblett far too much latitude. This was the less easy to understand, as all the danger had come from Gimblett in the first half, and every one of the four goals came indirectly from him.

Sensational First Half.
The first half was one of the most sensational ever seen at St. James's Park, and some of the escapes of the Merthyr goal were quite unbelievable. The goalkeeping saves of Burrows in the last ten minutes before the interval were worthy of Jack Robinson at his best, but more sensational still, from Exeter's point of view, was their first goal. It certainly appeared that Ives jumped to the ball and headed it well under the crossbar, whence it rebounded to the side of the rigging and then the goal-line before Burrows scooped it out, but Mr Thompson shook his head when appealed to by the Exeter players, It looked as if there would be a "scene", but being prevailed upon to consult a linesman the referee then awarded the goal.

Exeter City Reserves.

The Reserves played as well at Torquay as they have done in any match this season, and there can be no doubt that they well deserved to win, although Torquay scored first. The whole side put up a very creditable performance, and remain at the top of the Plymouth League table with 20 points from 14 matches.

Result:
City Reserves 3 Torquay Town 1.

The Exeter team was:
Chapman; Nevin, Hunt; Clarke, Bassett, Mullineux; Arscott, Lewis, Willats, Golightly, and Garside.