Match 21
24th November 1956
Walsall (h)

Southern League
Gravesend (a)

CITY REVERT TO "THE PLAN" BUT IN VAIN. 
WALSALL RETAIN EARLY LEAD:

SATURDAY NOV. 24TH.
EXETER CITY 0
WALSALL 1 (MOORE)
AT ST JAMES'S PARK.

The outcome of two home defeats was obvious at St James's Park this afternoon. Half an hour before the kick-off there were barely 200 on the ground. By the time Doyle led the City out the crowd had grown, but it was still no more than four thousand. And at the start of the game huge gaps in the grandstand and on the terraces bore mute testimony to the falling-off in football interest.

EXETER CITY:- Hunter; Doyle, Ferrier; John, Harvey, Mitchell; Buckle, Thomas, Currie, Porteous, Rees.

WALSALL:- Chilvers; Haddington, Perkins; Jarman, McPherson, Rawlings; Moore, Dorman, Richards, Leverton, Taylor.

REFEREE:- Mr H.J.Husband, of London.

Although the City played badly they did not deserve to lose. But the facts remain that this was their third successive home defeat, and it is also a fact that something has to be done to drag them out of the rut. For the first hour of the game they played the orthodox forward line pattern and got nowhere. Then they switched back to the "Mitchell Plan" and were certainly on top for the last half an hour. Although they did not score they had far more chances in those final stages than in the rest of the game.

THE MITCHELL PLAN.
Surely the most disgruntled City supporter of all must realise that the well-rehearsed and well-advertised Mitchell Plan, although it is not succeding, at the moment, at least brings more hope than just the normal game with an unsupported centre-forward getting no chances at all. Walsall's goal, a lucky one in the eleventh minute, secured for them their first away victory of the season, and they would be the first to admit that a draw would have been a much fairer result of this scrappy, dull, uninteresting game.

Southern League 
Gravesend v Exeter City 

Exeter City Reserves, playing against Gravesend at Gravesend, lost by three clear goals. Simmonds got the only goal of the first half, Bridge and Logie scored a goal each in the second. Bridge's goal was from a penalty. The City had Burke, who scored a hat-trick in the corresponding match last season, leading their attack today in place of Beer, who played at outside right.

GRAVESEND:- Heathcote; Thompson, Chambers; Shaw, Mabey, Bridge; Scarth, Logie, Boseley, Carson, Simmonds.
EXETER CITY: Bell; Foley, Marsh; Houghton, Parr, Major; Beer, Divers, Burke, Willis, Phoenix.

Although the City Reserves did as much attacking as Gravesend, these attacks carried little danger. Ronnie Burke returned to the side after a long absence, but he is in need of more practice at the moment.
  • John Logie,ex-Arsenal is pictured (picture is from Greens on Screen)

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