Southend v Exeter City  NOT ON THE TARGET: FORWARDS- FAIL IN FRONT OF GOAL
Monday, August 27th 1928.

SOUTHEND UNITED (Shankley) 1
EXETER CITY 0 

Referee:- Mr C.F.Moon, of Bristol.

Southend United: Moore; French and Robinson; Dixon, Binks, and Sayer; Morris, Townsend, Shankley, Donovan, and Clenshaw.

Exeter City: Campbell; Pollard and Miller; Clarke, Mason, and Christie; Purcell, McDevitt, Wade, Houghton, and Doncaster.

At the Kursaal on Monday evening Southend United beat the City by one goal to nil, a header by Shankley from Morris's centre, scored five minutes after play had restarted following the half-time interval. Exeter City opened the game in a very promising manner, but then fell away badly, and much of their shooting left a lot to be desired. A strong breeze made the ball lively and difficult to control. This, however was overcome to a great extent in the open, but when approaching Moore and his backs all the City forwards' skill seemed to evaporate, and their shooting lacked force and direction.

Team Changes.

Exeter made two changes from the side which lost at Brentford, Clarke and Wade coming in for Phoenix and Cameron. Wade made several gallant attempts to break through, but found the Southend defence generally too strong. His shooting from long range was too feeble to be effective. Clarke was a hard working half back, and gave good support to his forwards, but towards the end showed signs of tiring. The same remarks apply to Christie on the other flank of the City middle line. Had Doncaster and Houghton made use of the openings presented to them by the men behind the City must have established a lead at the interval, instead of which the sides crossed over with the score sheet blank. Wade and McDevitt had good scoring attempts frustrated by Moore in the second half.

Morris Allowed Too Much Scope.

Purcell was prominent with his speed but his many centres were not turned to account owing to the excellent covering of the home defence. Mason played a good hard game but was forced to give his attention to Shankley, a bustling heavy centre forward, always on the look-out for a burst through. Pollard was the better of the backs, for Miller at times was guilty of allowing Morris too much scope.
The attendance was 7,000.

Exeter City's Luck Out 
RESERVES BEATEN AT BRISTOL AFTER HARD MATCH
Wednesday, August 29th 1928.

BRISTOL CITY RESERVES (Gilhespy Murray) 2
EXETER CITY RESERVES (Doncaster) 1

Weak refereeing was the primary cause of the defeat of the City Reserves in their Southern League match against Bristol City Reserves at Ashton Gate on Wednesday evening. Bristol's second goal was most glaringly offside, but the referee was not up with the game, and to the surprise of most of the people watching he awarded the point. Both teams in fact suffered from the referee's decisions and Exeter City can
consider themselves unlucky to have had such an obviously offside goal given against them.

Bristol City Reserves: Newlands; Holbrook and Taylor; Geddes, Barber, and Smith; Gilhespy, B.Williams, Murray, Jennings, and Rankin.

Exeter City Reserves: Holland; Lowton and P.Noble; Taylor, Pool, and Sheffield; L.Turl, Streets, Wade, C. Bastin, and Doncaster.

The opening minutes of the match were very tame, but after the players had settled down Bristol City broke through and Murray tested Holland. Exeter got going and Streets put the ball over the bar. After 20 minutes Gilhespy opened the scoring. Lowton hooked the ball out as it was crossing the line but the referee ruled that a goal had been scored.

Palpably Offside.

Bristol City's second goal was credited to Murray, the ex-Everton and South African International, but the goal was so palpably offside that it was very surprising that it was allowed. Rankin stood hesitating before passing the ball into the middle, and Murray had no difficulty in finding the net from a range of five yards with Holland making no attempt to save.

Second Half.

The opening ten minutes of this half saw Exeter well in the picture, and at length their efforts were rewarded when Doncaster netted the ball. Combined play between Pool, Turl, and Streets made the opening for Doncaster to very neatly deflect the ball past Newlands from close range.  For the remainder of the second half Exeter were the equals, if not the superiors, of Bristol, and on several occasions the equalising goal seemed imminent. Bastin, Streets, and Wade in turn sent in strong drives, and only the adroitness of Newlands prevented a score. Doncaster, the former Bolton Wanderers winger, was the fastest man on the field.