WILKINSON NETS THE WINNER AGAINST ROCHDALE. FIRST CITY VICTORY FOR TWELVE WEEKS.

Saturday December 31st 1960.

EXETER CITY 1 (Wilkinson)
ROCHDALE 0

Played at St James's Park, attendance 4,365.

Exeter City: Jones; Whitnall and MacDonald; Wilson, Harvey, and Thompson; Donaldson, Wilkinson, Jenkins, Carter, and Rees.

Rochdale:- Mackay; Milburn and Edwards; Phoenix, Aspden, and Bodell; Barnes, Hepton, Pollett, Cairns, and Collins.

Referee:- Mr G.W.Thorpe of Swindon. Linesmen:- Messrs P.J.Woodland and W.Webster.

This was Exeter City's first victory since October 8th, and though on some occasions they have played better and lost, this time they had the luck to snatch two points with a single goal. Had they made better use of the wings and had Donaldson been in better form they might have made it more convincing.

But they had a lot of defending to do, and at these times Jones and the two full-backs showed up well. Wilson in the 29th minute headed out from under the crossbar a shot from Barnes that had Jones beaten and the ball was booted up the field, the City forcing a corner.

Donaldson took the kick, swinging the ball high into the goalmouth, where it was dropped by Mackay. Wilkinson was on hand to tap in the easiest goal he is likely to get all the season.

Western League 
Salisbury v Exeter City Reserves 

The City Reserves playing at Salisbury were caught up in a goal rush and finally had to concede defeat by 5 goals (Watts 3, Lloyd, and Kaile) to 4 (Bennett, Dale, Gordon, and A.Williams).

CITY RESERVES IN GOALS RUSH

Salisbury won the toss and kicked off with a following wind in their home Western League match against Exeter City Reserves. Conditions were good, and the ground was hard, although the pitch still showed signs of wear and tear and was bald in patches.

Salisbury : Stevers: McAllone. Collins: Trise. Campton, Prosser: Harding. Lloyd. McCartney. Watts. Clancy.

Exeter Res.: Blackmore; Turner. Packer: Williams (P.). Williams (A.). Grant: Welsh. Gordon. Bennett. Harrison. Dale.

Inside-left WATTS scored in the first minute for Salisbury, taking Prosser's pass and netting almost from point-blank range. Blackmore did well to hold McCartney header minutes later. Exeter counter-attacked strongly and Dale quickly showed himself to be the main danger man. Exeter were forced to give four quick corners but from none of these did the ball go to Salisbury men.

BENNETT ran in front of Stevens, as he groped for a high ball, and headed in the equaliser for Exeter. Exeter settled down to close-marking play and soon had Salis- bury confined in their own half. Whenever the home side broke away the inside trio showed great form, particularly WATTS, who scored Sallisbury' second goal with a hard drive from ten yards, after 25 minutes. With 20 minutes to go to the in- terval the game livened up, and goals came thick and fast. WATTS completed a great hat trick when he took a long pass from Stevens and outdistanced two defenders to score number 3.

DALE netted Exeter's second shortly afterwards when he ran over the sprawling Stevens and deflected the ball in from the post. LLOYD'S goal-Salisbury's fourth -was allowed despite Exeter ap- peals, the ball having been cleared when it was barely across the goal line. Exeter's third goal came shortly before the interval when Stevens feil while trying to hold GORDON'S high shot.

Half-time: Salisbury 4. Exeter City Res 3.

After the interval play became much looser and the hard ground resulted in some nasty knocks to players. Injuries to McCartney and Lloyd resulted in eight minutes delay. The scrambled mid-field play was a harp and disappointing contrast to the lively soccer seen during the first half. KAILE (Salisbury) and A. WILLIAMS (Exeter) scored in the second half.

Result: SALISBURY 5 EXETER CITY RES.4