CITY'S NEW FORWARD PLAYS AT TRANMERE. BUT ROVERS SNAP UP THEIR CHANCES.

Monday October 28th 1963

Alan Banks, the City's latest signing, a player who has before becoming a "Grecian" been on the wanted list of several big clubs, played at inside-right at Tranmere and was a success, a big success in fact, despite finishing up on the losing side.

Tranmere Rovers :
Leyland; Wilson and Conroy; King, Oxtoby, and Gubbins; Campbell, McDonnell, Evans, Dyson, and Roberts.

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

Attendance 5471.

The best way to describe the impact of Banks on the City team is to say that he came into the side like a blood-donor does after an accident, a vitally important carrier of new life. He didn't quite save the patient this time because Exeter City were beaten by two goals to one, but he put him well on the road to recovery. For after the disastrous display at Barrow this performance was a hundred per-cent improvement by the whole team. And it was mostly Banks, the 25 year old Liverpudlian inside man who seemed to make all the difference. Full of fight and fire and as fast as a greyhound he could with a bit of better luck have scored three times in the first fifteen minutes; he was then only stopped by a brilliant save by Leyland after half an hour, and finally made the effort which won the City their goal, from the penalty spet 15 minutes from the end. Running on to a nicely judged pass from Edgar he got round Leyland and shot hard only for Oxtoby to fist the ball out as it was enter ing the net. Harvey potted the penalty for Exeter's only goal.