City end Plymouth's run

Neville spoils Argyle holiday

Exeter City (Neville) 1
Plymouth Argyle 0

Attendance:- 9168

Match Report by Trina Lake

EXETER CITY completely ignored the so- called season of goodwill yesterday in dishing out a 1-0 beating to arch local rivals Plymouth Argyle in the traditional Boxing Day fixture at St James's Park.

There was little festive spirit in the way they bundled Plymouth out of their stride, out of the match, and out of three valuable Third Division points. It was unlucky 13 for Argyle, who came to St James's Park on the crest of a 12-match unbeaten wave that had forced them up to eighth place in Division Three and into the third round of the FA Cup. But they showed little to justify a slight favourites' tag they brought with them. Reputations count for little in local derbies and this game was no exception as City took sweet revenge for their first round FA Cup defeat at Home Park last month. They out-battled Plymouth in this fiercely competitive match and that alone just about earned them victory. It may have been the same City line-up that Argyle coped fairly comfortably with back in November but there was a complete transformation in approach. City showed no respect for their visitors' attempt at simply stylish football, knuckling down to the task of grinding Argyle down. But their reward for that no-nonsense method was an agonisingly long time coming and even more heart-stopping to hold on to. The deadlock was finally broken in the 65th-minute after chances had gone begging at either end. Dave Pullar received the ball in the middle of the pitch about 35-yards from the Argyle goal and intelligently swept it wide to the right wing for Kellow. 

Kellow hit a low hard cross in for Steve Neville to flick the ball behind him and past goalkeeper Neil Hards into the empty net. It was a goal that gave City manager Brian Godfrey particular pleasure because it underlined something he has been trying to drum into his players-for weeks. "The goal came from the best build-up of the game. "It was a good ball into the box-Tony showed how to put it in. We haven't had anybody to put in for him like that," said a delighted Godfrey after the game.

He was rightly pleased with the all-round performance of his team who created more goalmouth incident to the immense pleasure of the majority of the 9,168 crowd. Biggest gate That bumper holiday gate was, needless to say, City's biggest of the season by more than 5,000 and just topped last season's crowd for the corresponding fixture. Plymouth, without injured goalkeeper and captain, Geoff Crudgington, always looked slicker on the attack. Their well-oiled machine forced the first save of the match out of City 'keeper Len Bond after six minutes. Kevin Hodges got on the end of a neat build-up and vol- leyed goalward but Bond was alive to the danger and held on to the ball cleanly. Slick they may have been going forward, but Plymouth didn't look sharp in front of goal and their defence had their hands full as City put them under long spells of pressure in each half. Kellow gave Argyle cen- tral defender Lindsay Smith a testing time and went close three times in the first half. The City striker had Plymouth's defence in trouble again at the start of the second half but dallied too long in the penalty area and the ball was hacked clear. Smith had coped well with a limited Kellow threat at Home Park but with City playing more balls in to their forwards' feet the big man found his job a lot more difficult. Kellow beat him again to set up a chance for Peter Rogers, who shot wide in the 55th minute, and minutes later Hards, Crudgington's 20-year-old deputy, was saved by an offside flag after making a hash of a clearance. The goal City had worked so hard for, Neville's second since his return on loan from Sheffield United, looked in danger of being cancelled out within two minutes of the ball crossing the line. It sparked Plymouth into life and as they pressed right back for an equaliser there were heated appeals for a penalty. Tormenting winger Andy Rogers went over in the penalty area after what seemed to be a shove from Nick Marker but referee Derek Civil was unimpressed.

City had a golden chance to make doubly certain of victory in the 68th minute. Kellow's flick header on found a bunch of three City players seemingly offside but with no flag from the linesman Dave Harle took responsibility instantly and cracked a shot just wide from the edge of the penalty area. Things looked a bit frantic in the City defence as Plymouth desperately tried to level the scores but the back four had played well throughout, particularly Keith Viney, and held firm just long enough. Viney did well to carry on. He twice needed treatment and Godfrey revealed after- wards that he had been suffering from a painful groin strain. Plymouth looked at their most dangerous with long range efforts. Full back Gordon Nisbet hit a terrific 30-yard dipping drive that Bond had to palm over and Leigh Cooper struck a fierce shot which Bond could only parry to safety. But that was the closest Argyle came to denying Bond only his second clean sheet of the season. Although the match was an uncompromising affair that looked capable of living up to its Boxing Day billing in the worst sense of the words there was little or no malicious tackling, reflected in the fact that nobody was booked.

Exeter City:
Bond, M. Rogers, Viney, Marker, McEwan, Harle, Delve, Pullar, P. Rogers, Kellow, Neville. Sub Pratt.

Plymouth Argyle:
Hards, Nisbet, Uzzell, Harrison, Smith, Cooper, Hodges, Cook, McCartney, Sims Rogers. Sub Carter (on for Cook).

Attendance: 9,168.