Tuesday, December 27th 1910.
Southern League.
BRISTOL ROVERS v EXETER CITY.

At Stapleton Road, Bristol, the Rovers' return match with Exeter City was played in bright, cold weather, but it did not draw more than 5,000 spectators. Play all through was very keen, but at times there was an absence of skill, particularly near goal, and a curious feature of the match was the large number of unprofitable corners by both teams. All the scoring was crowded into the last quarter of an hour, during which time the Rovers obtained one goal and the City three.

ROVERS: Silvester; Harvie, Westwood; Williams, Channing, Phillips; Peplow, Corbett, Hurley, Hastie, and Rankin.

CITY: Walt Whittaker; Evans, Coates; Bassett, Pratt, Prideaux; E.Whittaker, James, Hughes, Bell, and Garside.

During the first half, which did not produce a goal, there little to choose between the two sides. It is quite true that Bristol was led off with unlimited dash, but they rarely finished their movements efficiently, and it was only on the odd occasion that they extended Whittaker. Once Corbett hit the post with a sharp drive, but their shooting was not very good, and mostly inaccurate. Exeter showed the same failing as their opponents when they got to close quarters, as they did occasionally, and too many free kicks were taken for the game to be regarded as ideal entertainment for the spectators.

Exeter Miskick and Bristol Score

Midfield play marked the opening of the second half. Then Garside led a sharp attack upon the home goal and Hughes brought Silvester to his knees with a stinging shot. The match appeared to be inconclusive and drifting towards a goalless draw until 15 minutes from the end, when a miskick by Evans let Peplow through to score for Bristol. Slack marking by the home backs enabled Bell to equalise, and the game became rather more interesting. Towards the end, the defence of the Bristolians broke down, and Hughes, by a fine effort, gave Exeter the lead. With only a few minutes remaining Garside added a further point, and the City won by three goals to one.

Notes on the Game
Exeter City owed their success to the brilliant manner in which they ended the game. Just when they seemed bound to lose the points they recovered in a totally unexpected manner, and gained the victory by a substantial margin. The Grecians, particularly after the interval, were the smarter combination. The only wonder was that they did not earlier exert the superiority which they showed later on, because the inside forwards were afforded every chance to shine by the weakness of Channing, who was a poor substitute for Shaw. Hughes led the front rank with any amount of skill; he scored the best goal of the match and was denied another, with an even better shot, by the Rovers' goalkeeper early in the second half. The half backs were steady, with Bassett the most conspicuous, and the backs, apart from one mistake by Evans which preceded Peplow's goal, were sound. Enos Whittaker has made quite a promising debut in the first team, although most of Exeter's attacks were formed on the left wing. In addition to feeling the absence of Shaw, the Rovers suffered from the poor form shown by their forwards.

Friendly 
City Reserves v Yeovil 
Reserves Win

Exeter City Reserves also won, defeating Yeovil by four goals to two in a "friendly" at St. James's Park.

• Improvement Began at Nelson: The month of December has seen a wonderful improvement in Exeter City's fortunes, and it seems that this began at Nelson, where they won a stirring victory in a thrilling English Cup-tie. On November 26th, after losing at home to Portsmouth, Exeter were almost at the bottom of the League table. Then came the Cup victories over Reading and Nelson, following which the City have met and beaten Brighton (last year's Champions), Norwich City, Swindon Town ( this year's apparent Champions), and Bristol Rovers home and away. Exeter have now got into the top half of the League table for the first time since 1908-09.