SATURDAY 30th NOVEMBER 1957.

CITY GAME REACHED A NEW LOW.

EXETER CITY 0.
Bell; John, Mitchell; Butterworth, Harvey, Waterman;Robinson, Nicholls, Atkinson, Rees, Dale.

NORTHAMPTON 1
Pickering; Collins, Patterson; Yeoman, Gale, Mills; English, Woan, Hawkins, Leck, Fowler, Scorer Northampton Leck,

Attendance 7,933,

The game started on a low ebb and reached even lower, a disgusting performance by two professional teams. Many supporters left before the end through boredomThis game must rate as the worst ever seen at St James's Park, Northampton took two points through a smart goal by Leck in the 68th minute, A few minutes before Harvey had hit an upright for City with a penalty kick, So almost all the thrills and almost all the life in the game was contained in those few minutes midway through the second half,

Most of the rest of the game was accompaied by a background of hoots, jeers, catcalls, outright laughter, slow handclaps and finally the rustling and bumping of hundreds of people going home early. It really was as bad as that, Against a side with even the merest pretence of being efficient, City would have been massacred by their own errors,

City lacked mobility, the ability to pass and tackle and too only a slightly lesser degree these remarks apply to Northampton as wellRees was undoubtedly City's outstanding player, the red head of Rees was everywhere trying to cover up his team mates weaknesses,

CITY MANAGER CALLED TO CORNWALL FOR PARLEY.

Exeter City's manager Bill Thompson was called down to Cornwall this morning to confer with chairman Mr A,S,Line at his hotel, That so far is the only definite outcome after a weekend of conjectures, rumours and of dozens of phone calls by Mr Line from the hotel that the City chairman is staying at in Falmouth, recuperating from an illness,

Mr Line said that the club will fight all the way to stay in the Third Division, but if City are relegated to the new Fourth Division we are not frightened of it, The board's outlook will then be to make sure of climbing back to the Third.

WEDNESDAY 4th DECEMBER 1957.

Annual General Meeting

NO DEFEATISM CALL BY CITY PRESIDENT. 

Exeter City F,C may be down, but it is far from out. That was the theme of the speeches at last night's A.G.M of Exeter City F.C. and Athletic Co.Ltd. President  Sid Thomas set the pace by declaring that if everyone pulls together instead of giving way to a spirit of defeatism, he was satisfied that the team can become a winner,"

The annual meeting was the ocasion of some plain speaking by shareholders who want to see the club doing better than it has done during the past few weeks,"

Mr Line was absent from the meeting by order of his specialist. He is to take a complete rest following a severe set back to his health, he has constantly kept in touh with Exeter City by telephone, Mr Thomas regretted his absence and said that Mr Line's health has broken down because of his efforts for the club, The annual report and accounts were adopted. Retiring director Mr A,T,Ford Vice chairman and Mr

A.W, Crawshaw were re-elected, Mr Ford said that the club was definitely in a little bit of a mess, but it had experienced this before, Director Mr L. Seward said that the Grecians were unhappy about their relations with the officials of the club, Mr Bill Thompson the manager does not fully appreciate the efforts of the Grecians Association, regulations now prevent them travelling with the club on away journeys,

Mr Thompson replied that he had nothing against the Grecians and appreciated everything that they were doing, however, he did not believe that anyone should travel with the team, They were men going to do a job of work and their concentration should be on the job that they were going to do, If the club's directors thought that this attitude was wrong, they could give permission to travel with the club if they wished, Mr Crawshaw said since the Grecians Association was formed, they had given over £20,000 to the club, Mr Thomas added that nothing must happen to cause any split between directors and the Grecians Association,

Shareholder Mr L,G,Bickers thought that the relations between the club officials and the press could be much improved and that there should be a liasion officer to give the press fullest information. Things like that made all the difference between getting public support and doing without it.