Exeter City v Rangers ANOTHER DAZZLING DISPLAY BY THE CITY FORWARDS

Queen's Park Rangers Bewildered
Saturday, October 17th 1931.
EXETER CITY 6
QUEEN'S PARK RANGERS 2.

The Rangers took the field against Exeter City at St James's Park a man short this afternoon, J.W.Lewis having missed the train from London, but he arrived on the field four minutes after the game had started. The weather was dull but dry, and the pitch in excellent condition. Andy Wilson, the famous ex-Scottish International, was unable to turn out for the Rangers, and Rounce deputised. Bob Pollard, the popular ex-Grecian, was another absentee. There were 7,000 spectators present when Miller won the toss and chose the St James's Road end.

Exeter City:- Davies; Gray and Miller;
Clarke, Childs, and Barber; Armfield, Varco, Whitlow, Houghton, and Doncaster.

Q. P. R. Pickett; Nixon and Hall; Haley, Armstrong, and Vango; Coward, J.W.Lewis, Goddard, Rounce, and Cribb.

Referee:- Mr D.J.Davies, of Newport.

The Rangers, losing by 5 goals to 1, must have felt bewildered at the state they found themselves in at the end of forty-five minutes' play. They have come up against nothing quite like this before, this season. Exeter's attack, which gave another dazzling display in front of the home supporters, was as deadly as any one could wish. Whitlow was a cool and brainy leader, and Varco a very strong inside-right, even though Armfield missed some of the passes he is accustomed to getting from Purcell. Houghton and Doncaster combined brilliantly and had a lot to do with the scoring. No fault could be found with the Exeter defence, but Childs seemed to tire after the interval.

Exeter had the better of the opening play, and Whitlow narrowly missed with a shot just over the bar. Just after Lewis made his appearance Varco placed the ball stronglu up the field between the Rangers' backs. Whitlow succeeded in getting to it; he then dribbled round Hall, Nixon and Pickett in turn to run the ball into the unguarded net. Within two minutes the Rangers equalised, a clever piece of dribbling by Lewis giving Coward an opening to score at point blank range. In 25 minutes Armfield scored for Exeter after Hall had failed to clear from Houghton, and in less than four more minutes Whitlow got his second goal of the match and Exeter's third. A high kick by Barber threatened to go out of play, but Doncaster somehow managed to capture the ball near the corner flag, and from his measured pass along the carpet Whitlow found the net from a position almost under the crossbar. Eight minutes from the interval yet another grand goal was scored by Whitlow, only to have it cancelled by the referee on the grounds of offside. Three minutes later a fine piece of play by Armfield and Doncaster put Houghton through to score with a lovely header. Through all this the work of Varco in the unaccustomed position of inside right had been beyond praise. In the 44th minute Doncaster, Houghton, and Whitlow shared in another hectic attack, carried through with amazing verve, and Houghton applied the finishing touch.
Half-time:
City 5 Queen's Park Rangers 1.

Lewis in the second half netted for the Rangers with a neat shot from Coward's. pass, and fifteen minutes from time Whitlow headed a centre from Clarke into the net, thus becoming the second Exeter centre-forward to do the hat-trick in the space of eight days.

TORQUAY UNITED RESERVES 5
EXETER CITY RESERVES 0.

Western League match at Plainmoor. Torquay Reserves registered their second clear-cut success against the City Reserves in this competition, having won at St James's Park by 4 goals to 1 on September 19th.

Torquay Res.- E.J.Libby; Webster, W.J.Johnson; Freer, Parkin, Hewitt;
R.R.Beer, E.E.Knott, Cooper, Miller, H. F.Rogers.

Exeter Res. FG.Grigg; Baugh, Fox; A.Johnson, Angus, Ditchburn; J.Gumm, Graham, Woodward, Halliday, Courtney.

The United deserved their success, but the City were unlucky, for in the first thirty minutes there was nothing to choose between the respective teams, and the passing of the City forwards was superior to that of the Magpies. Rogers and Miller scored for Torquay in the first half, and Cooper, Miller, and Cooper again in the second.