City v Gillingham

October 7th 1978

After the dizzy heights of their League Cup triumph over Bolton in mid-week Exeter City returned to the mundane reality of the Third Division at St James's Park and were held to a goalless draw by Gillingham. The crowd of 4,241 was Exeter's biggest this season for a League game, but the spectators could hardly have been happy at what they had paid to see. The City included the Exeter University student Tony Mitchell for his Football League debut in preference to the new signing Steve Neville, the change in personnel having to be made on account of Hatch's injury to his foot, aggravated in the cup-tie.

Exeter City:- O'Keefe; Templeman, Giles, Roberts, Hore; Delve, Randell, Mitchell; Bowker, Kellow, Holman.

Gillingham:- Hillyard; Sharpe, Overton, Weatherly, Armstrong; Nicholl, Crabbe, Richardson; Hughes, Price, Westwood.

Referee:- Mr T.D.Spencer of Wootton Bassett.

Both sides appeared to find difficulty in playing constructive and cohesive football in the first half, although Westwood and Crabbe did manage one or two combined moves which caused a certain amount of panic in the City defence. But the game never rose to any great heights until the last minute, when Hillyard made the best save of the 90 minutes to keep out a the header by Bowker.

The Programme 

Western League
Reserves v Saltash

October 10th 1978

Exeter City Reserves have slipped up in recent matches following their excellent start to the season and were again beaten at home, this time by Saltash United, who won by 3 goals to 1.