WEDNESDAY 21st AUGUST 1968.

CITY WERE SO NEAR TO CUP TRIUMPH. FOOTBALL LEAGUE CUP

Round One Replay.

EXETER CITY 0
Shearing; Smyth, Balson; Kirkham, Harvey, Newman; Blain, Banks, Bullock, Mitten, Pleat, PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 0.
Dunne; Reeves, Sullivan; Hore, Saxton, Neale; Davey, Piper, Bickle, Burnside, Lord (Reynolds).

Attendance: 13,338.

Jimmy Blain had the ball in the net after 33 minutes, up went the cheers, but they turned to disappointment as the referee disallowed it. So the game went on, it was 0-0 after 90 minutes, extra time was played and still no result. Now City and Argyle must battle it again in a second replay this time staged at Torquay United next week, In the end it was a fair result, Exeter took the first half, especially in the opening 20 minutes when they were well on top. In the second half Argyle played much better and came back into the game. As the match reached it's closing stages, extra time looked inevitable. But two minutes from the end Dave Pleat almost won the game for Exeter when he had a tremendous shot pushed over the top by Dunne, In extra time Piper shot inches wide, and Peter Shearing made a fine save from Davey, Then an almost disastrous back pass from Keith Harvey almost gave Plymouth victory. It was tense hard exciting cup football, Cecil Smyth had an outstanding game for City and the crowd was the highest at the Park for some years,

Summary 
The large crowd certainly had their money's worth of football entertainment this evening when they were treated to two hours of fast, cut and thrust football.
During the first half-hour the City played some of the finest attacking foot ball seen from the home side in a post war game at St. James Park, but for all their dash, determination and skill they could open-up very few real scoringchances. Jimmy Blain got the ball into the Argyle net after 32 minutes but at that moment Peter Bullock was quite rightly ruled offside, and although they were the more deserving team at that stage the City had to change ends without anything to show for their undoubted superiority. However, the longer the game went on the more Argyle improved and Peter Shearing was called upon to make a couple of saves after the interval although just before the end of full-time Pat Dunne made an equally fine save from David Pleat. There were more tense and exciting moments in extra time but by the end Argyle had recovered their poise and on the run of play a draw was a fair result.