SATURDAY MARCH 6TH: CITY v SWINDON

Victory With Little Credit

A POOR MATCH AT ST. JAMES'S PARK

Swindon 1 City 0.

The Swindon Town team, always a great attraction at Exeter, drew the biggest attendance since Christmas, numbering about six thousand, but the football scarcely merited this attention.

After the first quarter of an hour it became a shapeless and disjointed struggle, in which haphazard attacks were made by the two sets of forwards upon dour and uncompromising defences, whose sole purpose seemed to be that of stopping the forwards without regard for any constructive duty. In this unscientific struggle Swindon just about deserved their victory.

CITY

Pym

Marshall Strettle

Rigby Lagan Evans

Holt Lovett Goodwin(W) Goodwin(F) Dockray

Referee:- Mr J.T.Hornby, of London.

SWINDON

Bolland Bown Wheatcroft Fleming Jefferson

Handley Silto Tout

Milton Kay

Skiller

Early in the game the City suffered because the referee did not see an apparent foul upon Billy Goodwin inside the penalty area, and late in the second half, when they were striving hard to avert defeat, Lovett beat Skiller with a shot which struck the post and bounced out to Fred Goodwin, who, with an unguarded goal before him placed the ball wide.
There was an indefinable quality about Swindon's work which promised more than came to pass, but the Exeter defence provided the cause for this ineffectiveness. The tackling, if not the kicking, of Marshall, Rigby, Strettle, and Lagan was excellent and smothered attack after attack almost before it developed.

Twice Fleming found a passage through, but his skilful attempts to beat Pym failed. Fleming was very closely watched, and apart from one or two incidents such as those referred to, was seen to little advantage.

Lack of Confidence.

Exeter partisans could justifiably claim that territorially they had as much of the play as their opponents, but whenever the City forwards were near goal they lost all their confidence, and waited upon Silto, Kay, and Milton in a manner much to the satisfaction of the Swindon defenders. There was too much heading, too much shirking of responsibility individually, and not enough spirit in front of goal. Dockray was the only one to show any vigour and enterprise, and he did well against an experienced half back like Tout.

Swindon's goal was scored early in the second half, and though Bown was the player who actually put the ball past Pym, most of the credit belongs to Wheatcroft, who beat both backs by a clever feint, and gave Bown a simple chance.

Throughout the game Wheatcroft was prominent, but whatever honours there were in this match are due to the defenders. The backs on both sides played exceedingly well, apart from failings already mentioned. For Exeter Evans was a quiet but effective check on the speedy Jefferson, whilst Lagan and Rigby were sound and industrious. After Dockray, Lockett was Exeter City's best forward. Neither Skiller nor Pym were overworked.