Easter Monday Soccer MILLWALL FORCE A DRAW AT ST. JAMES'S PARK

Two Brilliant Headers
EXETER CITY 1 MILLWALL 1.
Monday, April 18th 1927.

Glorious weather favoured the big Easter-tide football programme, and the attendance at St James's Park was well over ten thousand. Millwall forced a draw today after having beaten the City by 4-2 at New Cross on Friday. Community singing (of a sort) paved the way for today's match, many people "letting themselves go" in the real holiday spirit. The weather was brilliant and in fact a trifle too warm for football to seem in season, but for the first hour, at least, the Grecians and the Lions struggled very eagerly and gamely for the goals and the points.

Exeter City:- Bailey; Lowton and Charlton; Ditchburn, Pool, and Miller; Purcell, Mc Devitt, Lievesley, Dent, and Compton.

Millwall:- Lansdale; Tilling and Hill;
Amos, Bryant, and Graham; Chance, Landells, Gomm, Phillips, and Black.

Charlton lost the toss, which meant that the Grecians had to face the sun in the opening half. Millwall were without Parker and Page, both players having received slight injuries in the Good Friday match, and the vacant positions were filled by Landells and Gomm. Exeter were unchanged from Saturday.

Many Spectacular Advances.

All through the first half the City full-backs kept the Millwall forwards in check, both Charlton and Lowton being in masterful mood and dominating play when it was in or near the Exeter goalmouth. From the outset there was seen a hard and uncompromising struggle between the City's attacking forces, the halves and forwards combined, and the Millwall defence. The Grecians made a great many spectacular advances but often the attacks petered out poorly. A most notable instance occurred after 27 minutes' play. Lowton supplied Pool with the ball, and Pool, as neatly, transferred to Dent. The City inside left surprised the Millwall defence by allowing the ball to run between his legs to Compton. Compton centred admirably to Lievesley, who had a clear opening a few yards from the Millwall goal, but the centre forward completely missed his kick. Another and more brilliant passing movement soon afterwards by the Grecians might have borne fruit, but when the ball came over to McDevitt and a quick shot by the Irishman would probably have done the trick, this master schemer preferred to nod the ball across again, and the one move too many gave the Lions their chance of clearing. Purcell was sticking to his work with splendid real, and winning honours in opposition to the redoubtable Hill, and so when it came to Purcell having the distinction of opening the scoring, the crowd was doubly pleased. The goal was well worked for. McDevitt sent a clever straight-ahead pass Lievesley, who swung round with the ball and scooped it goalwards, close to the upright. Lansdale dived and pushed it away, but Compton gained possession to and whipped the ball over to the centre again, whereupon Purcell headed past the goalie and into the net, just inside the near post. Exeter had secured the lead nine minutes before the interval, and they lost it again just on half time. Corners for Millwall were a ten minutes of the game, but in the first half they were great rarities. This may be the reason that the home defence failed to treat Chance's centre from commonplace in the last the flag with the respect which was its due, and Graham's downwards header from ten yards gave Bailey no chance. The referee signalled the interval before the ball could be taken back to the centre of the field.

Millwall's Heavy Kicking.
Second half play fell below the standard of the opening period, because the visitors were so far content with the position of affairs that their defence indulged in a lot of very heavy kicking whenever the City forwards advanced. These advances became less frequent and less serious as the game wore on, and for several reasons, chief among them being the remarkably fine breaking - up tactics of Bryant and his half-back colleagues, the workmanlike understanding between Tilling and Hill, and the powerful shoulder-charges, in which the heavyweights of the Millwall team specialised. The game was wound up in a monotonous series of corners to Millwall, in which the Exeter goal had so many escapes that the people who had been saying that the City should have won revised their views, and declared that the draw, one goal each, was a very fair result, which indeed it was. Chief honours in the Exeter team go to the backs, and to Pool and Miller. In the forward line Dent's wiles were successful at times, and so was Purcell's persistence. McDevitt did some clever work in the first half, but later on was overshadowed by Graham, who displayed the sort of form which has won him high distinction in the game.

Bristol City Reserves v Exeter City Reserves.
Southern League 

This afternoon at Ashton Gate, Bristol City Reserves repeated their success of Good Friday at the expense of Exeter City Reserves, in the Southern League, winning by four goals to two. Kirk, Paul, Drummond, and Garland scored for the Bristolians, and Exeter's goals were obtained by Thompson and Phoenix. The Grecians were very unfortunate in losing Walker with a foot injury at the end of half an hour when the score was one all. On reaching Exeter, Walker attended at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, and was X-rayed. Happily, this revealed that no bone was broken, but that the foot was very severely sprained.
Result:-
Bristol Rovers Res. 4-2 Exeter City Res.