Sending off brings further problems

REFEREE ANGERS GODFREY

Exeter City 1-1 Portsmouth 

Exeter City 
BOND, KIRKUP, VINEY, M.ROGERS L.ROBERTS, McEWAN, HARLE, P.ROGERS KELLOW, DELVE, PULLAR. 
SUB- GIBSON.

Portsmouth 
KNIGHT, McLAUGHLIN,SULLIVAN,DOYLE, HOWE, AIZLEWOOD, ELLIS, BILEY RAFFERTY, TAIT, THOMAS D.
SUB: ROGERS.
Attendance: 3,146.

Match Report by Trina Lake 

BRISTOL referee Eric Read may have punished Exeter City much more severely than he imagined when he sent central defender Stan McEwan off in the 82nd minute of last night's 1-1 draw with Portsmouth. McEwan was ordered off after retaliating on Mick Tait but it was "foul and abusive langauage to the player" which earned him his marching orders from Mr Read who had been sur- prisingly lenient with some blatant fouls throughout the match. City must now wait to hear the length of McEwan's inevitable suspension but with such a small squad and big central defenders in par- ticularly short supply they must live in hope it is as brief as possible. An already entertaining match boiled up into an exciting climax, sparked off by the McEwan incident. He picked up a loose ball on the edge of his own penalty area, nonchalantly chipped it over one Port- smouth player, and was comfortably nodding it past Tait when the striker caught him high and hard. McEwan squared up to Tait and shoved him twice before Mr Read intervened and to everybody's amazement sent the City man on the lonely journey back to the dressing room. It was a decision that clearly incensed City manager Brian Godfrey more for the reason behind it than anything else. He described Tait's tackle as "disgraceful" and was angered that his player should be sent off for swear- ing when a good deal of heavy tackling had gone unpunished.

McEwan's dismissal gave Portsmouth an added thirst to cancel out City's slender one-goal lead and in just three minutes it was quenched by the much-travelled striker, Billy Rafferty. He gratefully accepted a cross from Bobby Doyle that slid under the foot of Lee Roberts, who had shadowed him so effectively all night, and struck it past Len Bond with ease. Portsmouth threw everything at 10-man City in the dying stages, and Rafferty should really have sealed it for them when he managed to steal a yard from Roberts but could not connect with Alan Biley's cross right in front of goal. But City doggedly held on for well-earned point a against a side they had made to look very ordinary in the first half. Tony Kellow exposed their lack of pace at the back with several darting and dangerous runs early on. And it was intense pressure from the goal-hungry Cornishman that helped put City deservedly into the lead in the 10th minute. Dave Pullar lobbed the ball tantalisingly into his path and as Kellow raced on to it centre back Ernie Howe, running with him, stuck out a despairing boot to send the ball looping over goalkeeper Alan Knight, who was well off his line, and into the net. And pressure was what City's first half performance was all about. they never let this high-rated Portsmouth side settle. City abandoned their unproven sweeper system for a more conventional defensive line-up and pushed Martyn Rogers into midfield to good effect. But even his fearless. endeavour all over the pitch could not keep Portsmouth at bay in the second half.