ORDERS IGNORED THE BATTLE LOST

Match report by Trina Lake

EXETER CITY 2
Batty, Edwards. 
LEYTON ORIENT 3
Juryeff 2, Comfort. 

Played at St James's Park, Exeter.

Saturday January 2nd 1988.

CONCENTRATION - the mental capacity for devoting exclusive attention to something.

NINETY-MINUTES - the duration of a game of football.

Apply the first of those simple definitions to the second and success won't be too far behind. Sadly for Exeter City, it's a process that seems beyond them at the moment and that was never more clearly illustrated than at St James's Park on Saturday.

Leyton Orient were allowed to snatch a dramatic last- minute victory as City went to pieces in the last 10 minutes of a frustrating match and drew the most stinging criticism yet from caretaker manager John Delve. He shouted himself hoarse in spurring City on to recover from Ian Juryeff's fourth-minute gift goal for Orient and Brendon O'Connell's 15th- minute penalty miss. Paul Batty (34 minutes) and Dean Edwards (46) put City deservedly on course for their first win under Delve but they threw it all away with slack defending. Juryeff (81 minutes) and Alan Comfort (90) enabled Orient to reverse the scoreline at Brisbane Road when the teams met in September. Delve, desperate to keep the manager's job on a more permanent basis, croaked afterwards: "We deserved our lead but in the end got disorganised and players didn't do what they were told at half-time by tracking down opponents and competing for crosses. It has cost us the game. That's not unlucky - it's rank bad play and it has happened in all the games I've been involved in." He admitted that the squad needs strengthening and will be attempting to do something positive about that this week. But in the meantime he will demand a greater degree of responsibility from his players in the difficult task of pulling away from the bottom end of the Fourth Division. "There aren't many youngsters in the team. They've all been around, they know what I expect and they've got to grow up."

Delve included himself in the match-day 13 for the first time since taking the hot seat, occupying the substitutes' bench with Tony Kellow. Dean Edwards was recalled to the attack after being dropped the day before against Newport and responded with one - of his more determined performances. Conditions were not ideal for teams playing their fourth game in eight days. The heavy pitch cut up in intermittent torrential rain and a viciously deceptive wind made life difficult for both sets of players. The first goal-kick from Orient 'keeper Peter Wells at the Big Bank end went barely 30 yards. The weather, however, had little to do with the way Orient were handed an early lead. Comfort cut in from the left and shot from 20 yards, City goalkeeper John Shaw parried it straight to Juryeff who gratefully accepted the chance to score the simplest of goals. City steadily worked their way into the game after that dreadful setback and earned the chance to draw level on the quarter-hour when Eamonn Collins was fouled in the penalty area, but O'Connell blew it with an indecisive spot kick that allowed Wells to make a smart save to his right. It proved only a temporary reprieve for Orient as City kept plugging away in search of an equaliser. It eventually came from a deep left-wing cross by Keith Viney and Batty stole in on the blind side of the defence to head his sixth goal of the season. O'Connell, Roy Carter, and Batty all went close to a second City goal before half- time but soon after the restart Edwards applied the kind of clinical finish he has been struggling to achieve with any real consistency to put his side in front. He chased a Shaun Taylor free-kick down the middle and shrugged off the challenge of two defenders to beat the advancing Wells to take his goal tally for the season to six. Orient responded with sustained pressure but City always looked dangerous on the break and squandered three great opportunities to sew up an important victory.

Edwards, Collins, and Batty were the culprits - they were in clear scoring positions with only the 'keeper to beat but none of them even forced Wells into a save. The punishment for such waste was harsh but City have only themselves to blame. Orient were firing crosses in without being able to apply the killer finish until that dis- astrous final 10-minute spell. Shaw had already saved well from Kevin Hales and Carter cleared off the line be- fore Juryeff's second goal brought the scores level again. Substitute Alan Hull crossed from the right, Viney miskicked, the ball eluded Shaw and Juryeff forced it over the line from two yards. City were in disarray. Shaw saved spectacularly with his legs from Mark Smalley in the 84th minute and City may have thought they had survived for a point.

They relaxed again to allow Comfort just enough room to snatch that last-gasp decider. He had been given little room to display his usual left- wing trickery by Batty and Harrower for most of the match, but he escaped for long' enough to connect with a Kevin Dickenson throw-in to beat Shaw with a speculative shot from the edge of the penalty area and make Delve's misery complete.

Attendance 2,568.

Exeter City:- Shaw; Harrower, Viney; Carter, Taylor, Olsson; Batty, Cooper, Edwards, O'Connell, Collins.

Leyton Orient:- Wells; Ketteridge, Dickenson; Smalley, Day, Harvey; Hales, Castle, Juryeff, Nugent, Comfort.

Summary
The Orient, who were beaten 2-0 by Torquay at Plainmoor yesterday, looked to be on their way to another Westcountry defeat when they were trailing 2-1 with only ten minutes left. But Leyton staged a grandstand finish to win the game with goals by Juryeff and Comfort in the last five minutes. Exeter missed a penalty in the first half when O'Connell's spot kick for a foul on Collins was saved by Wells.