Already at the club in the days of St Sidwell's United, Frederick Aplin played in the newly-renamed Exeter City’s first match against 110 Battery Royal Artillery on 10 September 1904. Often skippering the club's 2nd XI, he was a cousin of Albert Aplin who played at the same time.

There is nothihg to suggest that Frederick made any more first-team appearances after the initial fixture although he remained with the club as a regular member of the reserve team. On occasions he apparently captained the second team with his first cousin Albert Aplin, who was several months younger, as vice-captain. 

The 1901 census shows Frederick John Lake Aplin (then aged seventeen, born Exeter), son of John Aplin and Jemima (nee Hill) living in Bartholomew Street and working as a plasterer. Also living in Mary Arches Street, public records alsoshow a Frederick Aplin resident at the West of Eye Infirmary on Magdalen Street, Exeter in 1939.

Fred Aplin died in Exeter in October 1940.

 [Extra information supplied by Ian and Jane Aplin]