Devon Derby

City And Argyle At St. James's Park

Another Goalless Draw: A Big Crowd

Easter Monday, April 13th 1914 

The return "Devon Derby" took place at St. James's Park, Exeter, this afternoon, before the biggest crowd of the season. Among the spectators was Mr.E.Duke, the Member of Parliament for the city, who occupied a seat in the grandstand. The weather was perfect, being warm and sunny with just a light breeze.

Teams:-

EXETER CITY

Pym
Fort Strettle
Rigby Pratt Smith
Holt Lovett Whittaker McCann Goodwin

Referee:- Mr. I. Baker, of Nantwich.

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE

Dixon Raymond Burch Kellock Kirkpatrick
Baker McCormick Blott
Forbes Butler
Horne

Half an hour before the kick-off the ground was packed. There were at least ten thousand present, including many excursionists from Plymouth, and it was certainly a larger crowd than had watched the Aston Villa cup-tie, for instance. The City, in red and white stripes, and Argyle, in green, took the field to a deafening roar of cheering, and the referee, a popular official, received a special round of applause when he appeared. Rigby beat Butler with the coin, but the air was still, and the choice of ends gave the Grecians no advantage. Exeter, however, defended the St James's Road end.

At 3.25 Burch kicked off and Butler beat Goodwin to the ball on the grandstand side and passed to Blott, who was neatly stopped by Fort. The Argyle exerted further pressure through Raymond and Dixon, and Fort's clearance this time sent the ball clean into the school playground. Twice home was brought into action, then Lovett had a short transfer picked up by McCormick, who returned play to the middle of the field. Strettle nipped in and wrested the ball from Kellock, and the City, in these early exchanges, were having most of the play, with the exchanges being as fast and furious as the proverbial cup-tie. A fine tackle by Smith enabled him to swing the leather out to Goodwin. The centre was picked up by Holt, who was fouled, Goodwin putting the ball over the bar from the free-kick. Play continued at a fast pace and Smith and Strettle were very sure in the Grecians' defence. Kellock was pulled up for offside, then at the other end Blott headed away a dangerous centre from Goodwin, this movement having been initiated by Pratt. Whittaker subsequently shot wide. A free-kick to Plymouth in their own half enabled them to press, and Rigby was given a rare handful to deal with in Raymond and Dixon, but came away with the ball nevertheless. Pym punched out a vicious looking drive from Kirkpatrick and Raymond flashed the ball over the bar from the rebound. Rigby, from a free-kick, made a weak attempt at shooting, but holt later won a corner, which was kicked out by Butler.

An Idle Time for Pym.

Kirkpatrick was allowed to go on from what looked remarkably like an offside position, but Strettle dashed across and charged down his shot, which was only a weak one, and easily cleared. Then Kirkpatrick needlessly barged into Strettle, giving away a free-kick, but Argyle were quits when Holt fouled Baker across on the far side of the field. Exeter mounted several attacks, and Horne was repeatedly handling, whereas Pym was having an idle time in Exeter's goal with very little coming his way. Nevertheless, the Plymouth attack, when on the move, seemed more workmanlike, and most of their raids were led by Kirkpatrick, whose form was much improved to that of Friday's match. Blott beat Goodwin for possession to relieve pressure on the Argyle lines, and Exeter failed again through Holt's pass to Lovett being too weak. An exciting passage followed when Smith chested the ball away from Kellock and passed forward to McCann. The Scot beat two men in midfield and fed Whittaker, who went striding through for Horne to earn applause for a smart clearance. Pym saved from Kirkpatrick, and the Argyle at last began to look dangerous. A drive from Burch hit the side of the net, then a fine solo effort by McCormick, who dribbled half the length of the field. was finally halted by Smith with a fine tackle. Pym then saved a shot from Burch, pulling the ball down from beneath the crossbar, and the Argyle's next attack petered out through Blott shooting behind. Blott was injured in attempting to stop McCann, and had to leave the field temporarily. He returned a minute prior to the interval, when the score was:

CITY ​ 0 ARGYLE ​ 0

Second Half.

Exeter restarted facing the sun. Both goalkeepers were quicklyin action and the game continued to be fought out at great speed, but the defences, with Butler in masterly form for Plymouth, were generally in control of the situation. A good centre from Holt was wasted by Whittaker running out of position, then Raymond obtained the ball and dribbled it past several City defenders until Strettle finally blocked him, about six yards from the goal-line. End to end play followed, and McCann just missed with a flashing cross-drive. Baker and Holt got at loggerheads and were both cautioned by Mr Baker, the referee. In the last fifteen minutes both sides increased their efforts in the search for a deciding goal, but it was not to be. Two centres from Dixon caused Pym momentary anxiety, but the best attempt came at the other end, where Horne dived across his goal to make a brilliant save from a full-blooded straight drive by Whittaker, from fifteen yards. Five minutes from the finish of the game Plymouth were lucky to escape a penalty being awarded to Exeter when Forbes tripped Holt inside the area, but the City's appeal to Mr Baker went unheeded.

Result: No score.

Notes on the Game.

As the result indicates, the defences of both sides held sway. Exeter worked out the best chances of scoring in the second half, and near the end a little luck and steadiness by Whittaker and McCann would have won the match. As usual, the effect of the big holiday crowd and the excitement of the occasion was reflected in much of the play and in some of the doubtful methods which were at times used. There was a considerable amount of acrimony on the City right wing, where Holt did not make a moderate display of any further value to his side by his provocative measures against Baker. One result of this was that Forbes became rattled and took up Baker's cause by tripping up Holt inside the penalty area, the Argyle, on that occasion, being fortunate to escape punishment. It may have been, however, that the referee refused to accede to the City's quite justifiable appeal for a penalty because he was perfectly well aware of what had been going on between Holt and Baker at various stages of the match, and formed his own opinion that it was a case of "six of one and half a dozen of the other."

The honours of the contest were shared between Strettle, Pratt, and Goodwin (Exeter), and Butler, Kirkpatrick, and McCormick. The attendance was twelve thousand, a record for St. James's Park.

Plymouth and District League.

The match which should have been played between the Millbrook Rangers and Exeter City Reserves, at Devonport, was postponed, the reason being the appearance of Millbrook in the final of the Devon Senior Cup, at Home Park, Plymouth, against the Argyle Reserves.

The Rangers won this game by a goal, scored by Fowler in the very last minute, to nil, thus dispossessing Plymouth (the holders) of the Devon Cup, which was then presented to Gosling, the Millbrook captain, by Mr Sydney Smith, an Argyle director, and Chairman of the Devon County F. A., since the death of Mr. Spooner.

Teams:-

Rangers:- Roberts; Horswell, Rounsevell; Downs, Wright, Thomas; Lakeman, Gosling, Lagill, Fowler, Bath.

Argyle:- Langworthy; Black, Wright; Webber, Tainsh, Davis; Jack, Gallogley, Worden, Williams, Reed.