THE OVERTHROW OF LUTON TOWN
Grecians' Brilliant Victory at Kenilworth Road

Saturday, December 28th 1929.
LUTON TOWN
EXETER CITY 4  (Houghton 2 Purcell Guyan)
Half-time 0-3.

Luton Town:- Baines; Kingham and Richards;  Walker, Smeaton, and Fraser; Daly, Young, Yardley, Woods, and McInnes.
Exeter City:- Alderson; Baugh and Shanks; Sheffield, Ditchburn, and Dennington; Purcell, Houghton, Guyan, Hemingway, and Doncaster
Referee:- Mr E.C.Sambrook, of Swansea.

Unfortunately the rain which had fallen for several hours in the morning had not ceased when the teams appeared, and the attendance was below 5,000. Luton won the toss and Exeter faced the driving rain in the first half. They kept the ball moving, however, and clever passing by Sheffield, Purcell, and Houghton resulted in the first goal being scored. First Sheffield sent an ideal pass along the ground to Purcell, who outpaced Fraser and centred at a nice height. Houghton, like the born footballer he is, got the ball down to his feet in no time, and taking deliberate aim, scored a beautiful goal, Baines being completely beaten as the ball sped into the net past his right hand. Less than a minute afterwards Doncaster centred, Guyan headed the ball forward to Houghton, who promptly headed it into the net for goal number two. Three minutes before half-time Purcell snapped up a pass, and going forward at speed beat the Luton defence single-handed to score a magnificent goal.

TEAM SHUFFLE UNAVAILING.

Luton changed their team in the second half, Young leading the attack, with Yardley at inside right. This made not the slightest difference, and with a quarter of an hour to go they made still further changes, Richards going to centre half, Smeaton to right half, and Walker to full back. Shortly after this Purcell centred and Hemingway with a clever overhead kick was unlucky not the score, the ball striking the face of the crossbar. Baugh left the field with an ankle injury, but despite this the City increased the lead. Purcell lobbed the ball into the goal area, Houghton trapped it, and passed to Guyan, who scored from close range. The light failed badly, and in City the concluding stages the play was very difficult to follow. It is a decade since Luton suffered such a defeat at home and though in view of the absence of several of their regular players the club is deserving of sympathy, the team themselves were to blame for this set-back on a slippery turf, which grew worse in the rain, which fell throughout the match. There was a lack of enterprise in the attack, and glaring weakness in the half-back and back divisions. While Luton pressed quite as much as Exeter for the greater part of the game their shooting was not comparable with that of the City, who kept moving and fired hard at goal when within range. the ball

ALDERSON UNBEATABLE.
There are times when Alderson stands in the Exeter goal seemingly like the "rock of Gibraltar, " and today was one of those times. Luton, who must have had about six shots to every one of Exeter's, but found Alderson absolutely unbeatable. Baugh until he injured his ankle and Shanks were quick and watchful without being over-impressive, but the Exeter half back line was magnificent all the way through the match, especially Ditchburn, who never wasted a ball, never missed an opportunity of turning defence into attack, and never shirked a tackle. Dennington was consistently clever at feeding his wing, and strong in defence, while Sheffield produced the sort of form he displayed when given a chance in the team towards the close of last season. The forwards could hardly fail to shine with such excellent support, and all played well, Houghton being in particularly dazzling form.

Southern League
EXETER CITY RESERVES 6
EBBW VALE 1.

St James's Park was waterlogged this afternoon, when the City Reserves and the Vale met to contest a Southern League match. Rain was falling, and there were only about 1,000 people on the ground at the start.

City Reserves: Holland; Howson and Bright; Hill, Mason, and Gurkin; Armfield, Thomas, Henderson, McDevitt, and Townsend

Ebbw Vale:-  Savio; Ireland and Oliver, Daniels, Ellerington, and Jenkins; Johnson, Walker, Toombs, Cope, and Coleman.

Exeter pressed at the start, and Townsend brought Savio to his knees with a powerful low shot. Armfield scored for the City after 18 minutes, and twelve minutes later Johnson equalised from a penalty given against Howson, who was adjudged to have handled. Henderson scored Exeter's second goal from a centre by Armfield, and when Armfield was fouled in the penalty area he took the kick himself successfully for the third goal. Just before half-time Armfield netted again with a brilliant and unstoppable header. Half-time: City Reserves 4 Ebbw Vale 1. Henderson scored Exeter's fifth goal early in the second half, then hit the crossbar with a splendid header, and rounded off an excellent day's work by shooting the sixth goal, Armfield having provided the opening.