Cardiff 2 (Stevens 2)
Exeter 1 (Cooke)

H-T: 1-0

Attendance 2,688

by MARTYN DEAN AT NINIAN PARK

City go down in cup bore. 

EXETER CITY'S manager Brian Godfrey will travel to Portsmouth tonight in an effort to find a solution to the problems which beset his side in their 2-1 League Cup defeat at Cardiff last night. Godfrey plans to watch the reserve team in action in their opening London Midweek League match and he will be telling the players that a good performance tonight could earn them a place in the first team for Saturday's clash with Carlisle.

City already look likely to be forced to make at least one change for the Carlisle game - because of an injury to Dave Pullar and Godfrey has warned that there could well be more. Pullar did not appear for the second half of last night's match after twisting his ankle just before half- time. Although it is still too early to say how bad the injury is, Pullar's chances of being fit for Saturday do not look good. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about last night's game is that City will go into the second leg on September 16 with only a one-goal deficit to make up. Although for the most part City managed to match their Second Division opponents, however the game if bottled would make a passable cure for insomnia. Godfrey was naturally disappointed with his team's performance. "So many things went wry it would be impossible to go through them all," he said. "Some of the players worked hard, but others were prepared to be second best. "I had my say in the dressing room afterwards, but I shall be having the players in again today so that we can have a talk about the match and sort one or two things out." On the evidence of last night's affair, it is not diffi- cult to see why Cardiff have branched out into the Rugby League business.

The game attracted a crowd of just 2,688 and I cannot see many of them wanting to come back for a second helping on Saturday. John Lewis and Billy played well for the Welshmen and the two big strikers, Peter Kitchen and Gary Stevens, proved to be quite a handful for the City defence. But, as Godfrey pointed out afterwards, if City had played to anything like their true potential, they could have expected to come away with at least a draw. In fact, they might even have been all square at the end of last night's showing, but for a terrible lapse of concentration. City had managed to battle their way back to 1-1 with central defender Joe Cooke grabbing his first goal for the club from Peter Hatch's 73rd minute corner. But they committed the schoolboy sin of allowing Cardiff to restore their lead straight from the restart. Ronson was given acres of space to get in a clever chip which caught Ian Main well of his line. The City keeper managed to get back to push the ball against the bar, but Stevens followed up to slam the rebound into an empty net. The unfortunate Main must also take some of the blame for Cardiff's first goal. He failed to get his hand to a right wing cross from Lewis and Stevens was able to nod the ball fairly gently over the line. City managed to pick up their first booking of the season when Mike Lester was cautioned for something he said to the referee and Cardiff's John Buchanan also incurred the referee's displeasure for a second half foul on Lester.

City players get a lashing over that Cardiff display (from the Echo 6/9/81)

EXETER City players felt the full blast from manager Brian Godfrey's tongue last week. For far from being satisfied with the League Cup score line at Cardiff, the City boss was more critical than he's even been since he took over two and a half year's ago. Exeter lost 2-1 and need only to win 1-0 in the second leg at St. James' Park on Wednesday week to go through to the next round on the away goals rule. 'That's not the point - on that performance we should be dead and buried,' was Godfrey's blunt summing up. Few if anyone escaped Godfrey's fury afterwards when the air was a Cardiff
blue and the looks on the players faces an Exeter red. Not only was Godfrey concerned that the teams passing was the worst he had seen but it worried him that City failed to create a chance apart from the Joe Cooke goal which keeps City very much in the competition. 'It looked as though Tony Kellow was having a bad game, but I felt sorry for him' said Godfrey. 'He's never going to score unless we get the ball into the box to him, and the same goes for Ray Pratt. 'Before last week I would always give us a chance against any side because we create so many chances. But it's difficult to find a word to describe how bad we were," said Godfrey. Disappointing perform- ance or not, City are poised to go through to the second round at the expense of those perennial Second Divi- sion strugglers Cardiff. Torquay United on the other hand have made life difficult for themselves after losing by the odd goal in a five goal first leg thriller against Newport County. Not everyone at Plainmoor is pessamistic however. Says player coach Bruce Rioch: Lots of clubs have come from the position we are in and reached the next round. "The tie is by no means a foregone conclusion and we can win at Newport just as we should have won there in the Group Cup last month.'