Exeter City's Rousing Season

Chapters in a Hard Campaign:

Exeter City have had a most strenuous, exacting, and exciting season. Commencing in August without a centre-forward of repute the club presently signed on Jimmy Edmondson, of Swansea Town and Sheffield Wednesday fame, and Edmondson, in his sixth match for Exeter, was just settling down in his old-time form when, dash through the Brighton defence he crashed on the in point of a his shoulder, and received such an injury as has kept him out of the game ever since.

The City Reserve XI, which won the "Spooner" Cup from Plymouth Argyle on April 28th, included four players who have been tried at centre-forward in the club's Football League side since Edmondson was hurt, and by common consent the last one to be given a chance is the best of the lot, Wilfred Lievesley. Yet the others have every reason to be proud of the part they played in the emergency role; the club could not have had more willing service, and the players rose to the occasion in their best possible style.

EARLY ANXIETY

Ill-luck in the matter of injuries was the one big feature of the City's early play. It commenced in the practice matches, with Gallogley and Charlton both being prevented from taking part in the opening League match at Newport, and at Newport an injury befell Crawshaw, who was carried off the field. So it went on until the climax was reached in the unforgettable and regrettable match at Luton on October 13th, when Exeter finished the game with eight players on the field, and Luton with nine, and the unhappy story was continued and concluded at an F. A. Commission which sat at Bristol.

Next came the Cup-ties. Newport County at Somerton Park. Exeter City's club officials did not jump for joy when they were told the result of the draw, neither did the players. But they rolled their sleeves up and tackled the job in the right spirit. Tom Gallogley played the game of his life on Somerton Park that day, and Jack Davis's two brilliant goals in the space of as many minutes, one from a perfect pass by Alf Matthews, will not be forgotten in a hurry by the City supporters who travelled to the game. Somebody in the Newport team hit the Exeter crossbar before the Grecians had scored. Later on Bell, the County centre-forward, shot wide from a penalty kick. What day it was! From that time onwards the City concentrated on the Cup. Bristol Rovers had to be received in the fifth qualifying round at St James's Park at a time when Stanley Charlton was not available, and Flynn filled the gap. The City scored almost in the first minute through a magnificent effort by Kirk, and Shelton netted the ball. Bristol equalised. Then Bailey had the bad luck to see a flying kick of his rebound from one of the Bristol forwards direct to the Exeter net, and the Rovers led. But Matthews levelled the scores again following a corner kick, and there the scoring stopped.

ROCK LIKE CITY DEFENCE:

Bristol people thought Exeter would be whacked in the replay, but it was not to be. Wragge, of the Rovers, was hurt in the first match, and the club was compelled to re-arrange its intermediate trio for the return game. Perhaps that fact made a difference. The Bristol people said it made all the difference. But Exeter people were of an equally strong opinion that Stanley Charlton made all the difference. The defence was "rock like." And an early goal by the Matthews and Davis combination decided the game. The Grecians never played a better brand of Cup football than Stapleton Road on December 5th, 1923.

THE MAGICAL MEETING

A visit to Sittingbourne, a visit from Grimsby Town, a visit from Watford, and a visit to Watford wound up the series. None of these games reached the standard of the three at the commencement of the City's cup run. If football went by rule of thumb, Watford would have been beaten at Exeter in that second round tie, but for the first time in six the Grecians failed to score, and with that failure their Cup luck vanished. The disappointment was all the keener, as in the Cup draw on the following Monday the winner of the City v Watford tie was to receive Newcastle United in the next round.

In the whirl of the Cup many people had lost sight of the need for League points being gathered, and now there was more than a little anxiety as to how the Club would stand at the seasons's end. This feeling was accentuated by a misderable double defeat at the hands of Norwich City.

Directors, officials, and players all met on the evening of Friday, February 15th, some fifteen and a half hours after the players had returned from their Thursday afternoon engagement at Norwich. Goodness only knows what passed at that meeting, but the effect was magical. The team was re-cast for the morrow's fixture at Swindon, with all four full-backs in the side. Coleburne was selected for right half and Flynn centre-forward, and Pollard and Charlton in their proper positions. And the match was won. Harry Kirk again electrified everybody with a wonderful bit of football which enabled Andy Flynn to score the easiest of goals, and the one which counted in the League records as Exeter's first, away from home. Lievesley, it will be remembered, registered the actual first one at the Charlton Athletic ground in January, but it was deleted from the records when that game was stopped five minutes after the interval through a heavy thunderstorm.

NcIntosh also played superbly on this occasion at Swindon, but the real hero of the day was Joe Coleburne, successor to Hunter at right half and in the captaincy of the team.

THE "GRECIAN" FEELING

It took a few more games to really settle the combination, and the composition, of the team. Then for ten successive matches the same defence and the same half-backs did duty, with only a slight alteration forward. Lievesley was introduced as leader of the line on the day when the Grecians re-visited Catford. Murray came into

the quintette at inside-left on Easter Saturday, at Gillingham. Nine matches at home have been won right off the reel, and the play of the City team in the last two of these has been sheer a delight.

It is right to describe this season as Exeter City's best, and most interesting, since the war. Followers of the club have seen a great deal of brilliant and clever football; the talent has been there, and the true team spirit, the "Grecian feeling," which has been missing for three seasons, has come back again.

As they have been playing in recent games Exeter City are just as good a side as any to be found in the Southern Division, and the outlook for season 1924-25 would appear to be very bright.

CROMPTON'S "COMING OF AGE"

Mr Fred Mavin's task is easier than it was at this time a year ago. And he is to be congratulated on having introduced to Exeter and East Devon generally, through the medium of the City Football Club, some highly gifted exponents of the game, men of whom the supporters want to see more. It is not fair to particularise, in this respect, but a word of congratulation is due, first of all to Ellis Crompton, for no player has done more for the club. Those who know Ellis Crompton, and have seen him stay the pace on each and every occasion, no matter how hard the going, and no matter how tough the opposition, will find it difficult to believe that next term will be his "coming of age" season in professional football.

During his twenty years' experience Crompton has been with such clubs as Blackburn Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur, and that he profited by that experience is apparent in every game he plays. So the Directors have done very wisely in retaining Crompton, despite the fact that he is a veteran. has

And having paid tribute at length to Crompton, it is also right to bestow fullsome praise on three more of the City's "tried and trusted" brigade, Coleburne, Dockray, and Pollard, for the way in which they jumped to help rescue the ship at a time when it looked very wobbly and likely to sink. And it would hardly be just not to record what everybody in Exeter recognises, namely, that Stanley Charlton is as fine a full-back as has ever set foot on St James's Park.

During his twenty years' experience Crompton has been with such clubs as Blackburn Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur, and that he profited by that experience is apparent in every game he plays. So the Directors have done very wisely in retaining Crompton, despite the fact that he is a veteran. 

And having paid tribute at length to Crompton, it is also right to bestow fullsome praise on three more of the City's "tried and trusted" brigade, Coleburne, Dockray, and Pollard, for the way in which they jumped to help rescue the ship at a time when it looked very wobbly and likely to sink. And it would hardly be just not to record what everybody in Exeter recognises, namely, that Stanley Charlton is as fine a full-back as has ever set foot on St James's Park.

Exeter City players
Apperances in 1923-24

GOALKEEPER: Bailey 41, Pavey 1.

RIGHT BACK: Coleburne 22, Pollard 19, Charlton 1.
LEFT BACK: Charlton 38, Flynn 3, Coleburne 1.

RIGHT HALF: Hunter 17, Coleburne 16, Murray 4, Crawshaw 2, Crompton 1, Gallogley 1, McIntosh 1.
CENTRE HALF: Crompton 24, McIntosh 15, Gilchrist 1, Hunter 1, Whelan 1
LEFT HALF: Gilchrist 27, Potter 7, Crawshaw 3, Flynn 2, Crompton 1, Murray 1, Whelan 1

OUTSIDE RIGHT: Matthews 29, Lievesley 9, Shelton 4.
INSIDE RIGHT: Kirk 36, Gallogley 4, Batten 1, Murray 1.
CENTRE FORWARD: Davis 12, Batten 8, Lievesley 7, Edmondson 6, Shelton 6, Flynn 2, Kirk 1.
INSIDE LEFT: Gallogley 16, Davis 12, Murray 8, Lowson 4, Gilchrist 1, Shelton 1.
OUTSIDE LEFT: Dockray 30, Shelton 12.

EXETER CITY RESERVES: GOALSCORERS:

Batten 14, Wray 8, Lendon 6, Lowson 4, Murray 4, Lievesley 3, Shelton 3, Blackmore 2, Thornton 2, Davis 1, Dockray 1, Flynn 1, Kirk 1, Whelan 1, Kettleborough (Barry, own goal) 1.