City kept their upward charge going in February 1964 and the driving force was skipper Arnold Mitchell.  When he scored in a 3-0 win at home to Chester on the 22nd of the month – “a terrific 25 yard drive”- Tony Court, reporting for the Express and Echo said the defender deserved it “because he gets through a tremendous amount of work every week”. It was one of 3 goals he scored in 38 promotion appearances.

Arnold had won his first professional contract in 1948 at tonight’s opponents Derby County but he failed to make a breakthrough. Indeed it was only when arriving at Exeter in 1952 that his career took off. And how! He continued at The Grecians until 1966 making an all time record 495 League appearances plus 23 in cup games. He played in every position including goalie for 11 minutes away at Southend in 1954.

Mitchell’s colleagues thought the world of him. Alan Banks, in an interview on the Grecian Archive said “Arnold was the main man in our promotion side. He was the one who geedeveryone up. Everything went through Arnold; he played the ball from the back and he played it forward. The main thing he used to say to the players was pass the ball to a red and white shirt; if you do that you’ll be fine”.

Graham Rees, interviewed in Mike Blackstone’s ‘Grecians Going Up’ book said “Arnold Mitchell really drove the team on. He was a motivator on the pitch”.  

Arnold, an inaugural inductee into City’s Hall of Fame shortly before his death in 2014, demonstrated his Yorkshire grit when talking to Tony Court (Echo, 11 January 1964).

“I’m sure that more than fifty per cent of our supporters are still not quite certain about the team’s system. And I think that to get them as football minded as they are in the north they need it explained fully to them.

“Some of the people who talk to me are definitely trying to read the game and follow exactly what we are doing. But others don’t seem to be doing this, and are still bickering about individual players and general tactics.

“What they don’t seem to understand is that we now have a system which suits our players perfectly. And that while the crowd don’t always agree with a player being in a certain position, he is there because he has been told to be.

“Every lad in the side from the goalkeeper to the outside left has a job to do, and is doing it to the very best of his ability. And this is what is bringing us success”.  

Promotion Factfile

Mitchell combined playing with a role as the Club’s Assistant Lottery Organiser, a job he was appointed to in October 1962. Alan Banks described Arnold as an “absolute gentleman on and off the pitch”.