EXETER CITY ROUTED BY LEYTON ORIENT
Defence Had No Answer to Speedy Visiting Forwards

Saturday November 6th 1954.

Exeter City 1 Leyton Orient 7.

The City crashed badly today at St James's Park, and a major cause of the rout was that the half-back line, apart from Setters, who worked tirelessly throughout, completely failed both in defence and attack. The young Setters had no need to reproach himself. He tackled well and manfully while he was in the intermediate line and continued to be a glutton for work when he changed places with Dunne late in the game. Exeter's attack bore no comparison with the Orient's line in all round effectiveness, although Murphy did much good work, especially in the first half. He was the pick of an Exeter line which suffered because anticipation was missing and there was too much fiddling. The City were outclassed in all phases, and the defence, in which Paddy Doyle and Davey were too slow, had no counter to the speedy and lively Orient raids.
The attendance was 6,000.

Exeter City:- Kelly; B.Doyle, L. Doyle; Setters, Davey, Dodgin; McClelland, Dunne, Donaldson, Murphy, and Kaile. Leyton Orient:- Welton; Lee, Charlton; Blizzard, Aldous, McKnight; Groves, Facey, Rees, Morgan, and Poulton.

The scoring was opened in the first few minutes by Morgan, for the visitors, but Exeter, awarded a penalty against Aldous for flooring Murphy from behind, equalised when McClelland beat Welton with the spot kick. Groves and Charlton scored further goals for the Orient, who led by 3 to 1 at half-time. The second half was nothing short of a disaster for Exeter City, and Leyton rubbed it in with two goals each from Rees and Groves.

Match Report 2
from a programme article in 2010/11

Saturday 6th November 1954
Third Division South
Exeter City 1 Leyton Orient 7
Attendance: 8,874

This proved to be an afternoon to forget for Exeter City as they slumped to heavy defeat at St James' Park. City seemed totally demoralised and disjointed and they were not in the same class as Orient after the first half.

This performance was in complete contrast to the match against orient at the Park, just three years earlier, when the Grecians won 6-1. There was never any likelihood of that being repeated.

Confident and cohesive, Orient were by far the better team as the margin of victory suggests against a much changed City team. The Grecians showed very little in attack as they were continually pushed back by the visitors.

The most disturbing feature of the City team was the frailty of the defence, especially down the left hand side where Orient took full advantage.

Only one player shone for City and that was young Maurice Setters, who manfully did his best against overwhelming odds. Setters, a product of the City reserve team looked to have real promise and long career ahead of him.

The vast majority of City supporters left the ground in total shock at what they had witnessed. A truly abject performance by Exeter City. It was so embarrassing that one wondered just how many goals Orient would eventually score and at one stage the thought of conceding double figures was a real possibility.

The Grecians' goalscoring record was as bad as any in the entire Football League and whilst the defence had to shoulder the blame in this particular game, it was fair to say that City rarely, if ever, apart form the goal scored by Charlie McClelland, looked like troubling the visitors' keeper.

City team: Hugh Kelly, Les Doyle, Brian Doyle, Maurice Setters, Fred Davey, Norman Dodgin, Charlie McClelland, Thomas Dunne, Andy Donaldson, Eddie Murphy, Gordon Kaile.


SOUTHERN LEAGUE
BARRY TOWN V CITY RESERVES
ONE GOAL EACH FOR CITY RESERVES AND BARRY

On a rain-soaked pitch at Barry play opened slowly, but Exeter City Reserves were the first to mount an attack, Morris saving a fierce drive from Houghton. At half-time nothing had been scored, however. The game ended in a draw of one goal each, Richards scoring for the home side and Houghton for the Reserves.

Team: - B.Hunkin; Walton and Mitchell; Owens, Harvey, and Williams; Callan, Anderson, John, Houghton, and Rees.