The Eclipse of Reading

Exeter City's Brilliant Bank Holiday Play 
Halliday Was the City's Brighest Star

Monday, March 28th 1932.
EXETER CITY 4 READING 0.

Playing brilliant football in all departments, Exeter City beat Reading in the most convincing style at St James's Park on Easter Monday afternoon, obtaining four goals in less than half an hour and winning by that score, holding the upper hand throughout. Eleven thousand people watched the match, and if there were disappointed in the display of the visitors they were delighted at the way in which the Grecians at last made some amends for their moderate performances in the holiday matches at Reading and Swindon.

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

Reading: Mellors; Forster and Hodgkiss; Darnell, Allan, and Barley; Ritchie, Eaton, Palethorpe, Balmforth, and Davies.

The secret of Exeter City's splendid success was a marked improvement at centre half, and an even more pronounced smartening up of the attack, with Varco in the centre, Whitlow and Purcell forming the right wing, and Halliday at inside left to Doncaster. Any fears that the much altered forward line would find some difficulty in the matter of settling down to an effective game were dissipated instantly by the smoothness with which the initial attack, within one minute of the kick off, was carried through to a triumphant conclusion. Receiving Doncaster's shrewd through pass, Halliday unhesitatingly slipped the ball up the centre, keeping it low. Varco moved out swiftly to accept the pass, and staving off the challenge of Hodgkiss he sent the ball across in front of the Reading goal and tantalisingly out of the reach of Mellors, even though the goalkeeper threw himself full length in an attempt to save. Whitlow, with nice anticipation, was in position to close in and ram the ball hard into the net.

Exeter's Delightful Football.

Reading rallied somewhat after their opening shock, but apart from two or three moves in which their wingers were prominent, and which ended with Ritchie, with an open goal, shooting outside, the visitors were finely held by the determined Exeter halves and backs, who were in their usual, business-like mood. And all the real excitement was at the Reading end, because, under the inspiring influence of Purcell and Halliday, the City front line men were playing delightful football of a quality which has not been seen much of in recent weeks. Exeter's clean and quick combination was a joy to behold, the players all showing masterly control of the ball. Mellors turned around the post a long shot by Halliday, who at the second attempt was somehow beaten by the spinning ball which flew over the empty goal.

A Remarkable Second Goal.

Reading were handicapped temporarily by an injury to Davies, who went into the dressing room for treatment to his leg. During Davies's absence, and when twenty minutes of the game had elapsed, the Grecians obtained a remarkable second goal. From a throw-in by Barber almost precisely at the half-way line and in front of the grand-stand Halliday tapped the ball back to Barber, who promptly punted it up the middle. Hodgkiss thought he might clear the shot, but finding the ball was travelling over his head he left it to the goalkeeper. Mellors raised his hand to shade his eyes from the glaring sun, and before he realised the danger the ball dropped out of the glare of the sun, hit the turf three or four yards in front of him, bounced against his legs and glanced into the goal. When certain of his colleagues ran to congratulate Barber on scoring easily the most extraordinary goal of the season on this ground he hardly knew accept their handshakes or to refer them modestly to Mellors. whether to In five more minutes Exeter obtained goal number three. This time the opening was made by the left wing pair, and from Halliday's perfect final pass Varco shot a great goal, the ball flashing past Mellors at high speed.

Doncaster's Admirable Effort.

There was a short-lived Reading attack in which Eaton headed inches over the City cross-bar, and then, in the twenty-eighth minute Purcell swung a beautiful pass across to the outside-left position.

Forster made a frantic but fruitless attempt to intercept the ball, which was in an instant brought until control by Doncaster, who, seeing that the quickness of the move had left the goal open to him, ran on to beat Mellors with a low cross shot, deliberately placed just inside the far upright. Doncaster's effort was so admirable that half the team moved over to congratulate him. Purcell and Halliday positively revelled in their work, and the enthusiasm of the spectators was boundless as the City continued to outplay their rivals, launching attack after attack in rapid succession. Allan in trying to hold Varco, had his hands over-full, and the men on either side of him were so desperately busy that they had no time to think of the needs of their own forwards. Halliday was the star performer in the Exeter attack. He showed rare judgment in his distribution of the ball and gave Varco some delectable ground passes which any forward would have been glad to take in his stride. The second half by comparison was tame, Exeter ambling along, and Reading, now deciding that defeat was inevitable, making only half-hearted efforts to get by the City defence.

Southern League

Taunton v Exeter City Reserves 

• Exeter City Reserves were defeated by five goals to one in the return match at Taunton against the "Town," for Southern League points.

EXETER CITY RESERVES WELL BEATEN.

"HAT TRICK" FOR BURROWS.

SIX GOALS IN SECOND HALF.

Taunton pleased a fairly large holiday crowd at Priory Park on Easter Monday afternoon by beating Exeter City Reserves by the decisive margin of five goals to one. They thus completed the double" over the Devon side, having obtained the only goal scored at St. James' Park on Good Friday. Both matches were in the Southern League, in which Exeter, at home on Saturday, scored the remarkable victory of thirteen goals to wil over Swindon Town Reserves. Seven of their players on that occasion were in the side on Monday. Two amateurs were then introduced-Keefe (Exminster), right half, and Risdon (St. Mary Major's, Exeter), centre forward. Taunton were obliged to make one change in defence, F. Mills, the local policeman, appearing at centre half in place of W. Curtis, who was injured at Exeter. Burrows, who scored the winning goal there, made his first appearance before a home crowd for many weeks, having been kept out of the team through knee injury. After a shaky start, he obtained a clever "hat trick " in the second half, when his shooting was deadly. He proved a great opportunist and seized every chance that came his way, although strong challenges by the backs had to be overcome as a preliminary to his second and third goals. Clemett was quite good in his new position at inside left, and the other forwards, Smith, Townsend and Dollings, played in their customary good style. The home forwards excelled in the second half, when all the scoring took place. Thor- oughly hard-working and dependable was Taunton's defence, Mills being not one whit behind his colleagues for good constructive play, and the manner in which he filled a difficult position was most praiseworthy. Exeter were well served by Ditchburn (right back) and Armfield and Graham (right wing), and Jones was also outstanding in goal, having no chance with either of the shots that passed him. Recent rain had affected portions of the surface of the pitch, which accounted for a number of mistakes on both sides. Slowness in shooting also robbed Exeter of one or two gilt-edged chances, particularly in the first half, when, with a little better finishing, they might have taken the lead. Excessive vigour had no directi bearing on the result of the game, but there were occasions when the tactics employed were somewhat questionable, and if this undesirable element is curbed it will be to the advantage of the game and all concerned in it.

GOALLESS HALF.

Exeter were set to face the wind and sum. and were quickly on the defensive. Taunton were dangerous when Smith lobbed the ball into the goalmouth, but Jones was safe. Mills and Townsend were prominent, and Jones saved a well-placed free kick by Woodward. In the next second Baugh had no besitation in heading behind to save his charge. Exeter now attacked strongly on the right, but were crowded out. Even ex-changes followed until Dollings caused a thrill by lobbing into a packed goalmouth. Several players headed before Clemett sent over the bar from a good position. Immediately afterwards the ball travelled across the goal-mouth from Townsend, with no other forward up to add the finishing touch. Fast, open play by Exeter transferred the scene of operations, and a swinging pass by Courtney to Graham failed only because the latter hesitated, heing robbed by Curtis. At this period Exeter were the more thrustful side and Keen miskicked in an excellent position. Taunton's next attack saw Clemett graze the cross-bar with a fast shot, and Smith called upon Jones to save direct from a corner. He then neatly gathered a header from Burrows. The home half-backs were frequently in the picture, but the inside forwards did not take full advantage of their good work. Armfield, the visiting right winger, had many keen tussles with Curtis, and, following an incident near the interval, both these players were cautioned by the referee.

THREE GOALS IN FIVE MINUTES.

Both sides strove hard for an opening zoal on the resumption, and Taunton's wingers were prominent in a first-minute onslaught, Smith shooting over. Burrows was given a splendid chance from a free kick by Curtis, and bis failure to shoot was partly owing to the slippery ground. At the other end McLean was outwitted by a neat bout of passing between Risdon and Courtney, but Bristowe ran out and saved the situation. Taunton, mmediately after, opened their account through Burrows, who headed a glorious centre by Clemett just inside the upright. A minute later the centre forward netted again. He received weil from Dollings, smartly side-stepped a back, and shot into the corner opposite to that in which the goal keeper had positioned himself. Almost direct from the re-start Exeter ran through the middle, and Risdon reduced the arrears with a cross shot which gave Bristowe no chance. Shortly afterwards Burrows completed the "hat trick," following good work by Smith and Townsend. The centre forward trapped the ball from Townsend's centre, swerved past an opponent, and shot strongly from the edge of the penalty area. Jones, again, was hopelessly beaten. The inspiriting effect of Taunton's success was shown in another vigorous raid, when Dollings netted as the ball crashed back from the cross-bar off the foot of Clemett. It was all Taunton now, and Exeter backs and halves packed the goalmouth in a desperate effort to save their charge. The fifth goal was obtained by Townsend, and crowned a fine solo effort along the left wing by this clever inside forward. His dropping shot from near the touch-line rebounded into the net off the upright. Exeter made spasmodic attempts to reduce the arrears, but never looked like piercing a sound defence.

The teams were :-
Taunton-Bristowe; McLean and Curtis (E.); Davies, Mills and Woodward; Smith, Townsend, Burrows, Clemett and Dollings.

Exeter- Jones, Ditchburn, Baugh, Keefe, Angus and Robinson; Armfield, Graham, Risdon, Courtney and Keen.