The Tables Turned 

NORTHAMPTON BEATEN BY EXETER CITY AT THE PARK

The Enterprise of Poulter

Wednesday, September 7th 1932.

EXETER CITY 3 (Barber Scott Poulter)  NORTHAMPTON TOWN 1 (Mortimer)

Half-time 2-1. 

The return game between the City and the Cobblers at St James's Park on Wednesday evening took a very different course to the one at the County Ground, Northampton, last week, and much to the relief of the crowd of 6,300 spectators the Grecians won by three goals to one.

Exeter City: Davies (A) Gray Miller Clarke Childs Barber Scott Connaboy Poulter Houghton Welsby

Referee:- Mr W.E.Russell, of Swindon.

Northampton: - Hammond Oakley Dawes (F) Davies (F) Park Dowsey Wells Forbes Dawes (A) Boyle Mortimer

There will be better games at Exeter this season. The ball was in the air too much to please the Soccer aesthete, there was a good deal of faulty positioning, and it often happened that the player in possession did not make sufficiently prompt use of his chance. In one respect, however, the match was outstanding, and that was in the proof it afforded of the merit and enterprise of Poulter, the new centre-forward from Sunderland. Right from the beginning Poulter impressed by his confident leadership, and as the match progressed the spectators liked him more and more. He received few good passes. Generally he had to battle for the ball in the air. Nevertheless, thanks to his strong physique and his indomitable spirit, he was one of the outstanding forwards in the game. Good ball distribution, determination in heading, clever footwork when advancing towards the rival goal, and powerful and accurate shooting made Poulter a warm favourite with the crowd, and there was a tremendous demonstration when he netted Exeter's third goal with an almost unbelievable shot from the very goal-line at the East end of the ground.

OLD-TIME ARTISTRY.

Welsby was a dashing and clever outside-left. Scott would have done better if he had not attempted so many shots from all but impossible angles. Houghton and Connaboy improved considerably on their play at Coventry. Houghton's work was not consistently good, but there were times when he revealed his old-time artistry in the way of developing attacks at speed, and his shooting was more confident. Connaboy also put in some pleasing work and suggested that when he settles down there should be some very good football from this quarter, but at the moment he is not quick enough.

TRIANGULAR PLAY.

It was refreshing to see once again some measure of the triangular play on Exeter's wings, and particularly the very bright moves on the left, where Barber gave his forwards every encouragement. The left-half, indeed, is playing right on top of his form just now, and in this match was a sixth forward as well as a very capable intermediate. Childs excelled in breaking up the very smart moves of the Northampton forwards. He often placed his strong passes to his own forwards usefully, although inclined to lift the ball too much. Miller again showed up as the best player on the field, his performance being absolutely flawless. He timed all his clearances perfectly, made very good use of the ball, and always appeared to have something extra in reserve. Gray had a very good first half, but his work deteriorated later, when, with Northampton doing more attacking, Wells showed great liveliness at outside-left. Gray had a more than ordinarily diffi cult match for the reason that Clarke was considerably below his best standard.

COBBLERS FORTUNATE.

The first incident of note came when a scoring shot by Houghton was intercepted unluckily by Poulter, the ball striking him in the neck. Hammond had not got that shot covered. The Cobblers were even more fortunate a couple of minutes later when a shot from Houghton struck the post and Scott found himself faced with the seemingly simple task of tapping the ball into the net at two yards' range. Somehow Scott managed to put it over the cross-bar. In the tenth minute, however, Barber opened the scoring when he strode into the thick of the fray and shot a smart goal following a corner which was being keenly fought out. Then after 24 minutes' play shots by Houghton and Poulter in the penalty area were blocked, but the ball flew over to Scott, who netted against his old club with a perfectly placed cross-shot. Ten minutes after the interval Childs surprised Hammond with a header. The goalkeeper fumbled the ball, which was crossing the line for a corner when Poulter got to it and shot amazingly into the net. Eight minutes later Mortimer scored for Northampton.