Charlie Rutter, who had played for England B during his time at Cardiff City, signed for Exeter City in the late 1950s but left without playing for the first-team.

Although born near London, Charlie had been turning out for the newly-formed Taunton Town when he turned professional with Cardiff City in the late 1940s. Establishing himself in a strong Bluebirds' side, his performances in helping the club win promotion to Division One in 1951/52 earned him a late call-up to the England B team - captained by future England manager Ron Greenwood - to face the Netherlands in March 1952.  

Yet this was to be the peak of his career because he suffered a serious knee injury soon afterwards and, with Cardiff enjoying top flight football for the next five seasons, he never really regained his place in the team. Eventually leaving Ninian Park after totting up 118 league appearances he arrived at Exeter City in 1958 (although this does not appear to be acknowledged by some historical sources which state he went straight to Wisbech).

But not only did Charlie arrive at St James' Park ahead of the 1958/59 campaign, he also failed to play a single first-team game in what proved to be a stay of around sixteen months. This was to be noted in a single paragraph in the local press at the time of his departure to Wisbech Town on the final day of 1959:   

"Charlie Rutter, the former England B International fullback who had not played in the City first team since signing from Cardiff City, just over a year ago signed for Wisbech Town on a free transfer, He has been on City's transfer list for some time after refusing to live in Exeter."

With City's reserves playing in the Southern League, Charlie was still performing at a relarively decent level of football but for him not to feature in a single first-team encounter remains a curious story. But it was also the case that right-back Theo Foley - who was to help Northampton Town climb from Division Four to Division One in the 1960s - didn't miss a single game during Charlie's time with the Grecians. 
 
From Wisbech, Charlie returned to Kent to manage Sittingbourne before moving back to Cardiff where he lived until his death in 2012 at the age of eighty-four.