BRILLIANT GOAL BY HOUGHTON WINS A POINT
City Defence in Fine Form
Monday, September 8th 1930.

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 (Attwood)
EXETER CITY 1 (Houghton) 
Half-time 0-0.

Bristol Rovers: Berry; Price and Haydon; Cooper, Dinsdale, and Hamilton; Pointon, Forbes, Attwood, Dix, and Turnbull.
Exeter City: Davies; Gray and Shanks;
Clarke, Inglis, and Dennington; Purcell, Houghton, Parsons, Halliday, and Lister.
Referee:- Mr W.Evans, of Barry.

Exeter captured a valuable point in their match with Bristol Rovers at the Stapleton Road ground on Monday evening. With greater steadiness the City would probably have won, but the team can take credit for a very good performance in trying conditions. The Rovers were desperately keen on winning for the first time this season before their own supporters, and they had the advantage of the dazzling sun in the opening half. Further, they were helped greatly in defence by several unfortunate decisions by the referee, especially in the matter of offside, decisions which cut up the play of the Exeter forwards to an extraordinary degree, and which had the effect of spoiling some of the most promising moves seen in the first half.

Houghton's Brilliant Goal.

Despite their handicaps the Grecians, when once the half-backs had settled down, showed marked superiority in attack, their movements being much more thoughtful and dangerous than those of the Rovers. The second half was very stirring. When the game was resumed, after a goal less first "forty-five," Houghton netted a classic goal, after the whistle had gone for offside. In five minutes, however, a couple of good passes from Clarke to Purcell down the middle caught the Bristol backs out of position. Houghton brought the ball under control instantly and ran on to successfully withstand a challenge by Price and beat Berry with a strong left-foot shot which entered the net after striking the underside of the crossbar. It was a splendid goal, and gave the Grecians the encouragement they needed. At the same time it made the Rovers desperate, and they threw themselves into the fray with great energy in the hope of unsettling the City defence. Bristol crowded on all possible sail, and with eighteen minutes to go they scored the equaliser. A scrambling attack caught the Exeter defence off its guard momentarily and from Forbes's pass Attwood netted with a low shot out of Davies's reach. From that point to the finish the game was full of thrills, and both Forbes for Bristol and Purcell for Exeter came near to scoring with fine shots. The honours of the match rested with the Exeter defence, Davies, Gray, and Shanks showing great skill and determination in protecting their goal. The weather was fine, with a cool evening breeze, and ideal for football, but the ground was rock-hard although well covered with grass.

There were 6,000 spectators.
Bristol Rovers played in their new club colours of royal blue shirts and white knickers.

Inglis lost the toss for the fourth time in succession and the City faced the setting sun in the first half. Among the spectators were Alec Sheffield, now with Bristol City, and Albert Phoenix, who has joined Bath City.

Wednesday, September 10th 1930.
Exhibition Match 
SOUTH MOLTON v EXETER CITY.

Exeter City sent a team to South Molton on Wednesday evening for an exhibition match with the home club. It was expected that the professionals would win by a handsome margin without unduly exerting themselves, but whilst the score at the finish was 9 to 0 they made the game interesting by their many delightful movements.

These were, as they were meant to be, an object lesson to those who wanted to see how football should be played, and there was a good many of the younger generation among the spectators keenly following all the phases of the game.

City Kept Them At It.

It was rather a severe testing for the local players, many of whom had hardly touched a ball since last season, and the City kept them hard at it for all the eighty minutes of play. Moreover, the grass was rather too long for the playing of football, and the going was consequently tiring. But to the credit of the Moltonians they never admitted themselves beaten, although several of them were obviously tired long before the end.

The two who came through with principal credit were Boucher, the goalkeeper, and Lock, the left back. Boucher saved many shots of a power not encountered very often in amateur football, and Lock did a lion's share of defensive work with a big heart, and much of it was quite effective.

The halves had a gruelling time, being far too much occupied in defensive measures to be able to co-operate with their own forwards, who were not much in the picture as a result. Courtney ought to have been given more passes on the left wing, and Larsen was unlucky when he put in a shot that had Jones beaten, the ball striking the post and returning to the field.