Wednesday, April 12th 1939.
SOUTHEND UNITED 0
EXETER CITY 1.

It is doubtful if the Southend supporters have ever seen their team so outplayed this season as they were during the first hour of the match at the Stadium on Wednesday evening. The City were easily the better side until twenty minutes from the end, when they went all to pieces and were only saved by the magnificent goalkeeping of Church. Both sides gave the impression that they were tired after their heavy Easter holiday programme, and a crowd of about 3,000 saw a very scrappy exhibition of football.
Southend United:- Hillam; Trainor and Robinson; Harris, Hague, and Jackson; Smirke, Bell, Fryar, Oswald, and Martin.
Exeter City:- Church; Brown and Little;
Walker, Angus, and Fellowes; R.Southcombe, Riley, Bowl, Ebdon, and C.Sutherley.

Ebdon and Bowl were prominent in early Exeter raids, and Hillam and his backs were decidedly shaky at this stage. Exeter bustled Southend off their game, but it was 20 minutes before the expected goal came. Bowl snapped up a short pass from Riley and beat Hillam with a shot just under the crossbar. Although they never looked like winning Southend had most of the game in the last quarter of an hour, and it was largely due to the brilliance of Church that they failed to score.