Wednesday 23rd October 1963
Fourth Division

Exeter City 5 Tranmere Rovers 0

Attendance: 5,701

Everything that had gone wrong with Exeter City's much maligned and moaned about forward line went right against Tranmere Rovers. City clicked for the first time this season. They fought all the way and dictated the game throughout. No one fought harder than Arnold Mitchell, back like a brand new man after a one game rest, he seemed to be everywhere in defence and prompting the forwards. City opened the scoring in the 14th minute. Les MacDonald's free-kick was chested toward goal by Dermot Curtis, goalkeeper Leyland pushed the ball out, but Peter Phoenix cracked in a great shot. Four minutes later Mitchell scored from a Graham Rees corner with a crashing shot that flew into the net. In the 51st minute, Curtis finished off a John Henderson and John Edgar move. After that it was simply a question of how many Exeter would score. It was a long wait, however, for not until the 84th minute did City find the net again, Rees scoring with a shot from Edgar's low cross. A minute from time it was 5-0 as Henderson swept the ball home from close range to record City's biggest win since April 1962. The forwards at last showed that they could be constructive and take chances, as the whole team fought with determination.

City team:
Alan Barnett, Cecil Smyth, Les MacDonald, Arnold Mitchell, Keith Harvey, Des Anderson, Graham Rees, John Edgar, Dermot Curtis, John Henderson, Peter Phoenix.

Tranmere team: Leyland, Wilson, Oxtoby, King, Manning, Gubbins, Campbell, Jones, Evans, Dyson, Roberts.

Match Report 2 

EVERYTHING CAME RIGHT AT LAST.

EXETER CITY 5  TRANMERE 0.
WEDNESDAY OCT. 23RD 1963

Everything that has been going wrong with Exeter City's maligned and much criticised forward line came right on Wednesday. The scoring spree gave the City almost half as many goals in this one match as they have scored in all their previous ones. In short the City, and not just the defence, clicked at last.

Exeter City:- Barnett; Smyth and MacDonald; Mitchell, Harvey, and Anderson; Rees, Edgar, Curtis, Henderson, and Phoenix.

Tranmere Rovers:- Leyland; Wilson and Octoby; King, Manning, and Gubbins; Campbell, Jones, Evans, Dyson, and Roberts.

Referee:- Mr L.Callaghan of Glamorgan.

Linesmen: Messrs D.T.Markell and P.R.Walters.

In winning by this wide margin the City had fight, skill and punch, and no one could possibly have fought harder than Mitchell, who got the game going right from the start.
He seemed to be everywhere in the defence, cutting Tranmere down as they tried a few early raids. Then he was up, pushing and prompting his forwards so that they had to go goalwards. In the 14th minute MacDonald lobbed a high ball into the Tranmere penalty area. Curtis chased and collected it, passed to Phoenix and in the next second the ball was nestling in the back of the net. Four minutes later Mitchell crashed in goal number two, and there the score remained until the interval. Six minutes after the change of ends the game was to all intents and purposes won when Curtis scored following a passing movement between Henderson and Edgar. Rees got the fourth goal from another move of Edgar's instigation, and Henderson the fifth a minute from time.

FRIDAY 25th OCTOBER 1963.

CITY SIGN TWO AND PAY RECORD FEE.

Exeter City made two signings today and had to pay a club record fee for one of them, He was Alan Banks, 25, inside forward from Cambridge City, but City have to pay two seperate transfer fees for him. One to non League Cambridge and one to his former club who value him at £5,000, Chairman Mr Reg Rose said his transfer fee includes one of the biggest fees the club has had to pay, (believed to be £7,000), but it should be worth it with his goal scoring record, Banks certainly has an outstanding scoring record. During his two and a half years with Cambridge City he has scored a total of 120 goals, Last season he scored 48 goals in 35 matches despite a knee injury that kept him out of actionAt one period last season he scored goals in 25 consecutive games, Banks was with Liverpool for four years, one of them as an amateurDuring that time he scored seven goals in eight first team appearances. City director Mr Les Kerslake has been with Banks for the last two days fighting strong competition from other League clubs who wanted to sign him, This morning Banks agreed to sign for Exeter and said that he had chosen Exeter because he likes this part of the world very much and the club offered him first class accomodationIronically his first game for City will be at Tranmere across the river from Liverpool. The other signing City have made, is that of 24 year old halfback Ray Gough from Linfield, He is an Irish Youth International and has played twice for the League of Ireland sideExeter have to pay a moderate fee for him. He was recommended to City by Jackie Milburn, now manager of Ipswich Town, formely of Linfield.