The Grecians sat in a healthy third position in Division 4 as the season entered March 1964. And even opponents were noting a key reason why – a consistent and dependable defence.

The Club Jottings in the programme at Darlington (15 February) said ‘Exeter’s defence has played well and a big factor in this has been freedom from injury, very few defence changes have been necessary’. And York City’s programme (28 February) under the headline ‘Promotion-minded Exeter’ pointed out that ‘while they are not very prolific scorers, they have conceded only 27 goals in 34 games’.

The first game in March saw a 0-0 home draw against Barrow – another clean sheet for the Exeter defence. And one man at the heart of this backline at left half was Downpatrick born Des Anderson.  He played every single League game in the promotion season; only fellow defender Keith Harvey achieving the same feat.

Des (pictured) had been signed from Glenavon in August 1962. He already had 6 amateur international caps for Northern Ireland, two as captain. Des played all but two games in his first season and as an ever present in the nextshowed the value of consistency of availability and performance. As Graham Rees put it in Mike Blackstone’s ‘Grecians Going Up’ book – Des, along with Alan Barnett (45 League appearances), Cec Smyth (44), Les MacDonald (42), Arnold Mitchell (38) and Keith Harvey (46) ,were a defence that ‘virtually picked itself’.

The book ‘Exeter City: A Complete Record’ by Maurice Golesworthy, Garth Dykes and Alex Wilson says of Anderson ‘he was a defender who not only got through a tremendous amount of work but also knew how to cover the gaps’.

Life was very different for professional footballers back then and Anderson became an interior decorator in 1964 to supplement his summer wages. But he again proved his consistency in City’s first campaign in Division 3, missing only three games.

Des went on to make 153 League and Cup appearances for Exeter before being released at the end of the 1965/6 season. It was in this season, though, that Anderson made Grecian history by becoming our first ever substitute away at Brighton 11 September 1965.  

Promotion Factfile

It was during the promotion season that the club’s directors started looking for a site for a training ground. They advertised for a 15 acre area as near as possible to the city centre. On 5 March 1964 the Express and Echo reported that Chairman Reg Rose would be telling that night’s board meeting that there had been two replies so far. Nothing came of this and it wasn’t until 1978 that City rented the former St Luke’s College sports ground at Cat and Fiddle. They are still based there on what is now known as the Cliff Hill Training Ground.