Wednesday, October 14th.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE:
SOUTHAMPTON AT ST. JAMES'S PARK

Exeter City Beaten

Johnson, who played centre half in the first three matches, came into the side at right half in place of Tierney, who had a poor game at Leyton on Saturday. Parnell returned to the outside right position with Copestake crossing over. The Southampton side suffered from enforced alterations through injuries, but this did not seem to affect them.

Exeter City:

Fletcher;
Craig, Bulcock;
Johnson, Chadwick, Wake;
Parnell, Watson, McGuigan, Bell, Copestake.

Southampton:

Lock;
Smith, Glover;
Trueman, Thorpe, Jepp;
Bainbridge, Jefferis, Hughes, Shearer, Hodgkinson.

Referee: Mr. J. J. Wilson, Birmingham.

With about a quarter of the matches played, Southampton have established a clear lead at the top of the Southern League. They were undefeated until last Saturday, when they were surprisingly vanquished on their own ground by Northampton Town.

Founded in 1885, at the "St. Mary's Football Club" it was not long before Southampton began making a name for themselves as one of the leading football clubs in the South of England. They reached the semi-final stage of the English Cup in 1897-98, and the final itself in 1899-1900 and 1901-02, although they failed to win the trophy. They also reached the semi-final last season, but were defeated by Wolverhampton Wanderers, the eventual cup winners.

Southampton, for whom Chadwick played between 1897-98 and 1900-01, have won the Southern League championship six times, been runners-up once, and third five times.

TODAY'S GAME

The first visit of the famous Southampton team to St.James's Park resulted in a fast and evenly contested match, and one which was thoroughly interesting to a crowd of 6,000 spectators, a fine "gate" for a midweek event.

Exeter City were the first to get on the aggressive, and weak kicking by Glover and Smith nearly led to an early goal for the Grecians, but McGui gan shot wildly when well placed. At length the "Saints" forwards got moving, with Hodgkinson beating Craig and centreing well to Jefferis, who headed the ball smartly into the net. From then until the interval it was nearly all Southampton, but there was no further scoring.

HALF-TIME:
Saints 1 City nil.

The second half was thirty minutes on before Hughes got the Saints' second goal after beating Bulcock. Towards the close, McGuigan, who had played a poor game and made many mistakes, got the City's solitary goal.

FINAL SCORE:
Southampton 2, Exeter City 1.

Exeter City are going through a poor spell. Apart from their English Cup-tie, which they won with ridiculous ease against second rate opposition, they have played three matches in the Southern League and lost them all.