City Defeated: RANGERS SCORE ONLY GOAL IN A POOR GAME

Saturday, February 27th 1932.
QUEEN'S PARK RANGERS 1
EXETER CITY 0.

Whitlow came through his Southern League match at Bath on Thursday with complete success, and after being absent from the first time since January 9th he made a welcome reappearance this afternoon at the Queen's Park Rangers' ground. Varco, who reverted to inside-right, spent one season with the London club in between his spells with Aston Villa and Norwich City, although the Rangers now occupy a different ground, close by their old quarters. Roberts, the new Grecian, signed yesterday from Manchester City, was at inside left.

Exeter City this afternoon were making their initial appearance at the White City Stadium, an arena that is capable of seating 80,000 people, and with capacity for 120,000 people altogether. The weather was cold and gusty, and there were 14,000 spectators in the huge stands and terraces.

Rangers:- Pickett; Nixon and Hall; Adlam, Armstrong, and Goodier; Coward, Wilson, Blackman, Rounce, and Cribb.
Exeter City:- Davies; Gray and Miller; Clarke, Childs, and Barber; Armfield, Varco, Whitlow, Roberts, and Doncaster.
Referee:- Mr D.J.Davies, of Newport.

John James Blackman, who deputised for Goddard in the Rangers' attack, is a 19 years old centre-forward from Bermondsey, who has won prizes for running and jumping. Andrew Wilson is the famous old Scottish International formerly of Dunfermline,Middlesbrough, and Chelsea. The winning of the toss by the Rangers carried no advantage, as the wind blew across the spacious enclosure from touch-line to touchline. Gray and Miller were prominent for Exeter, as was Childs, but the new forward line took some time to settle down, and combined movements were few. Roberts was twice robbed when in possession, and he would have done better to have parted with the ball to either Doncaster or Whitlow. Prolonged pressure by the Rangers led to several shots at goal being rained in on Davies, who was equal to all demands until he was beaten by a ground shot from Blackman after half an hour's play. Feeble efforts at scoring were made by Whitlow and Roberts, and the best attempt was made by Varco, who from forty yards drove the ball just over the crossbar at terrific speed. Clarke was injured, and after a short absence for treatment in the dressing room this great-hearted player returned to limp along on the right wing, with Armfield inside and Varco at right half. During a Rangers' attack Coward was brought down unfairly inside the penalty area by Miller. The spot kick was taken by Wilson, but Scotland's best centre-forward of a few seasons ago could not beat Davies, who made a fine save. Exeter's forward line lacked understanding, and Houghton was again missed. They had chances to have made the game safe, but wasted them. Whitlow was the worst sinner in this respect, and his long absence from the game told against him this afternoon. Roberts played well up to a point, except that he was too slow, and he will no doubt do better when he becomes more intimately acquainted with the play of his new colleagues.

EXETER CITY RESERVES 1
LOVELL'S ATHLETIC 2.
Western League match at St James's Park.

Exeter City Reserves encountered South Wales rivals for the fourth time in the current month when they faced Lovell's Athletic. The home forwards were led by Halliday, and Purcell, out of the first team again, was at inside left. A trial was given at right half to W.J.Burge, a player from Taunton. The attendance at the start was about 2,000.

City Reserves:- Jones; Ditchburn and Baugh; W.J.Burge, Angus, and Robinson; Keen, S.Risdon, Halliday, Purcell, and Courtney.

Lovell's Athletic:- J.R. Jones; W.Hillman and F.C.Williams; C.Williams, Elwell, and H.Codd; Cook, A.Hillman, Gardner, Macgill, and Hiles.

Referee:- Mr E.Cribbett.

Macgill opened the scoring for Lovell's, who led by 1 to 0 at half-time. Exeter did quite a lot of attacking after the change of ends, all of which was without reward, and when Lovell's broke away Gardner drove the ball into the net to put the Welsh side two goals in front. Exeter shaped poorly in attack, Halliday having little idea of centre forward work, and after a while he and Purcell changed places. Elwell should have scored for Lovell's but shot over the bar from three yards' range, then from Courtney's corner kick Halliday obtained a goal for Exeter.