EXETER CITY TEAM.
In April 1932, The following thirteen Exeter City players have been notified that they will be offered terms for re-engagement next season:

Goalkeeper, Davies; full backs, Miller and Gray; half-backs, Barber, Robinson, Childs, Clarke, and Angus; forwards, Houghton, Roberts, Whitlow, Purcell, and Varco.

It will be noticed that the only player who took part in this afternoon's first team match and whose name is omitted is Doncaster, the outside left. Doncaster joined Exeter City in the summer of 1928 from Bolton Wanderers, and has played in over 120 League matches for the Grecians. He is one of the trio of players who are "ever-present" in this season's games.

Armfield, regarded for a long time as the regular Exeter right winger, is also omitted from the list. He is now in his third season with the Grecians, whom he joined from Aston Villa, and he has played some seventy League games for Exeter. Both these wingers took a prominent part in Exeter's sensational Cup run of the 1930-31 season.

EXETER CITY AND THE EAST DEVON LEAGUE.

The directors of Exeter City have decided to accept the invitation of the East Devon and Victory League Emergency Committee to enter a team in that League for next season. The City will sever their connection with the Western League next season but will continue in membership with the Southern League.

The End of the Road
REFLECTIONS ON THE 1931-32 CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTHERN SECTION

The Part Exeter City Played

Soccer's main activities are now suspended for a matter of fifteen Saturdays, and then, on the sixteenth, the clubs will be hard at it again, and the people who follow and support them will be saying just what they think of the work of the team-builders as reflected on the field of play. Between now and then there are the summer sports and the summer holidays, and the more leisurely consideration of the "Soccer" season which has just ended, and how it compared with some of the outstanding soccer seasons which have gone before.

SOCCER NEVER SLEEPS

In the mind of the true Soccer follower the game never sleeps. It may doze off for a few minutes now and again, but on the cricket field and the lawn tennis court and the bowling green, and by the moors and the seaside there will be quite a lot of discussion this Summer as to how Exeter City missed the promotion tide in the campaign of 1931/1932. Exeter's case is the case of every other big centre where football is played, in the sense that the adherents of those other clubs will also be dwelling quite a lot on how the game has gone in their midst, and whether it is likely to cause some real sensations next time.

WHERE THE CITY LOST TOUCH

By common consent Exeter City lost touch with promotion when they were beaten at Plainmoor on March 12th, by the odd goal of three. That adverse result was all against the run of play, territorially, but quite right and proper in relation to the merits of the respective attacks. The "Magpies" of Torquay fielded a dashing set of forwards, whereas Exeter fielded a very weak line. The Grecians did not really recover their confidence and fighting qualities till Easter Monday, when at St James's Park they outplayed Reading as Reading had not been outplayed in any previous match this season. Exeter's brilliant team-work and the thrustfulness of their forwards, with Halliday their inspiration, were
a revelation in that match. The Grecians, for threequarters of an hour, were once again the Grecians of last season playing in those memorable Cup - ties. In other words they were irresistible. In the second half, with the match so obviously won, the City relaxed and the game became ordinary.

A SHOCK FOR READING

Exeter's performance in that Bank Holiday match was a complete eye-opener to the officers of the visiting club. They had not believed that there was any team in the Southern Section capable of eclipsing the "Biscuitmen" in such a complete and convincing manner, and the game thoroughly shook the confidence of Reading as a side of Second Division calibre. If Exeter City had only maintained their Easter Monday standard in the games which followed Reading's visit the Grecians by now would be rubbing shoulders with Fulham at the top of the Southern Section, and Exeter people would all be celebrating a season of record success in the City's lengthy history. Instead, the forwards fell away sadly, much of their teamwork has "gone to the dogs," and in some games their marksmanship was unworthy of a schoolboys' side. So the City are not runners-up to Fulham. There is an ugly gap between the two clubs, and the nearest they got to them was when they visited their ground at Craven Cottage on the last day of the season and witnessed the ceremony of the Championship Shield being handed to the Fulham captain by Mr Morton Cadman, of the Tottenham Hotspur club, and an official of the Football League.

NO OUTSTANDING SIDE

There has been no really outstanding side in the Southern Section this season. Exeter, after their usual hesitating start, during which they were plagued by an amazing crop of injuries to key players, got going great guns and made such rapid progress up the League ladder and in the matter of goal-getting that in some quarters they were styled the Everton of the South. Injuries to Whitlow and Houghton early in the New Year seriously upset the front line, however, and with Armfield and Doncaster suffering a lapse of form the club lost ground in the race. Reading owe much of their prominence to their remarkably good home record. Southend were the wonder team of the competition for quite some time, but they had a very bad patch in mid-season, and on recovering, found that the steadier of the best sides had got rather far in front of them. Brentford held the leading position for weeks on end, but never impressed as being like stay on top, and sure enough they found the pace too hot. Crystal Palace have not had quite the season they hoped for, although the club has risen to a fine degree of prominence. In short, from whatever angle one regards the clubs in the competition, one is forced to the conclusion that Fulham's triumph is just about right. The Cottagers have not got such a lot to crow about as it seemed they would have three months ago, and their final total of League points is the smallest (57) of any club winning the Third Division since Charlton Athletic in season 1928-29 came out on top with 54. Plymouth Argyle broke the record with a total of sixty-eight points in season 1929-30, and Notts County last year got fifty-nine. Exeter City's home record this season was very good, and a rather remarkable feature is that the only two matches lost at St James's Park were the first, to Fulham, and the last, to Crystal Palace.

EXETER CITY AND THE CUP

Apart from their good Football League showing Exeter City have had something of a humdrum season. In the F. A. Cup they fell at the first hurdle. That was the third round tie at Grimsby. The City forward line was badly unbalanced, the right wing being much below standard. Glover's four second half goals for the Mariners from the centre-forward position was replied to by Exeter City with a single, scored by Woodward, who started the game at inside-right and finished at centre-forward. This inglorious dismissal of the Grecians means that they will enter the Cup in the old place, at Round One of the competition proper, and for that fact most people will be grateful. It is of course true nevertheless that a knockout in round one or two has a damaging effect on a club. But the reward to the clubs which manage to do the knocking out in those rounds is worth while. Interest rises steadily from the end of November till the big Third Round in January, and by the time that stage is reached the players have had time to gain "Cup confidence," and are ready for almost anything.

In the Devon Championship matches Exeter City beat Torquay at St. James's Park but fell to Plymouth Argyle at Home Park in the final. There was in December an extraordinary friendly match here, with the Corinthians, when the celebrated amateurs whacked the professionals in astounding fashion by seven goals to one. A fortnight before, the Grecians had accounted for the Bedouins by eleven goals to three. The men of Corinth, however, proved a very different proposition, and their classic play will not readily be forgotten. The City staged an interesting match in mid-week towards the end of November with the Soccer team of H.M.S.Exeter, who were accompanied on the journey from Plymouth by the ship's band. The match was something quite outside the usual run of games and was greatly enjoyed by all.

Exeter City Reserves have been handicapped all the season by weakness in some of the forward positions, and the team never had the ghost of a chance of emulating the splendid feat of the side of the previous campaign, when the City won both the Western Section of the Southern League and the Western League competitions. In September the City received a visit from Dartford, the winners of the other section of the Southern League, in a match to decide the championship of the League as a whole, and on that occasion the Grecians got rather a shock, for Dartford won by seven goals to two.

COVERED ACCOMMODATION

Next season, it is announced, the Exeter City Reserves will compete in the Western Section of the Southern League and in the Premier Division of the East Devon and Victory League. This last decision followed on an invitation from the League Executive. Exeter City's participation looks like being a signal for an extensive alteration and improvement to the Premier Division. The past week has seen big strides by the Exeter City Club towards raising a fund of £5,000 for the purpose of covering in a great part of the popular bank at St James's Park, and also to furnish the wherewithal for summer wages. The Bond Scheme in relation to the grandstand was so successful that friends of the club have had no hesitation in falling in with the new proposal, and it would seem that between now and the opening of the 1932-33 season a great deal will be done at the City headquarters with the main object of ensuring comfort for the mass of the club's patrons in all weathers. It is a step long overdue.

EXETER CITY PLAYERS
First Team: max 42 games 
Appearances in League Matches

Angus 11, Armfield 31, Barber 42, Baugh 14 Bright 1Childs 28  Clarke 39 Courtney 1 Davies 42 Ditchburn 2 Doncaster 41 Gray 30, Gumm 1, Halliday 5, Houghton 33, Miller 30 
Purcell 22, Roberts 11, Robinson 2, Varco 36, Whitlow 23, Woodward 7. 

Goalscorers 

Houghton 16, Varco 16, Whitlow 15, Doncaster 8, Armfield 4, Barber 4, Purcell 4, Roberts 4, Clarke 2, Woodward 2, Baugh 1, Childs 1.


WHERE THEY PLAYED

Goal: Davies 42.
Right back: Gray 29, Baugh 13.
Left back:Miller 40, Baugh 1, Bright 1.
Right half: Clarke 39, Gray 1, Purcell 1, Robinson
Centre Half  Childs 28, Angus 11, Ditchburn 2, Robinson 1.
Left half: Barber 42.
Outside right: Armfield 31, Woodward 5, Purcell 3, Whitlow 2, Gumm 1.
Inside right: Purcell 18, Varco 14, Roberts 9, Whitlow 1.
Centre forward: Varco 22, Whitlow 19, Woodward 1.
Inside left: Houghton 33, Halliday 5, Roberts 2, Whitlow 1, Woodward 1.
Outside left Doncaster 41,Courtney 1.

Western & Southern League Goalscorers 

Woodward 15
Hurst 14
Halliday 13
Graham 6
Whitlow 6
Keen 5
Courtney 4
Armfield 2
Doncaster 2
Purcell 2
Robinson 2
Gumm 1
Risdon 1
McDade 1 (Yeovil own goal.)
Baugh 1
Stanton 1 Ebbw Vale own goal.