NEAR-FAULTLESS, THAT WAS THE CITY DEFENCE
by TONY COURT

EXETER CITY badly wanted that 3-0 win over Chester at St. James's Park on Saturday, but the win itself wasn't any more important than the way that they got it, for I rated
this as as their best over-all performance for several weeks. It was only in Saturday's "Football Final" that I said City were slightly lucky because they were not playing as well as they had been but were still picking up the points. This was true. In spite of the draws at Southport and Darlington and the home win over Hartle pools, they had seemed to have lost their system. Instead of playing as a team, they were just scratch ing around. However, against Chester they at last gave the old impression of solidarity, and once again it started back in the defence, which, to my mind, was pretty near faultless.

TOUGH TACKLING

It was the tough tackling and extremely quick covering of the defence which clamped right down on a potentially very dangerous Chester attack right from the start. It was on this foundation that the City were able to build their win. The play seemed to flow forward instead of bob and jerk as it has been doing for the past few weeks. There was an almost continuous pressure on the Chester defence even if there wasn't a continuous stream of chances. Chances did come, and if the City had been just that little bit better they could have had at least two goals by half-time.
Unfortunately the attack was not quite so smooth. Thorne was not at home on the right wing. Trying to shift the ball on to his left foot meant that he was running into the centre and every time he did that he ran into trouble. In the centre itself, Curtis never seemed to get the right sort of ball when he in position, and seemed just too closely marked when the right ball did come along. The result was that while the City had almost all the play in the first half, they did not have any goals to show for their trouble.
FULL OF FIGHT TOO

When the second half started. City were still full of fight and bustle, and instead of faltering through that opening period, they felled any Chester hopes with two quick goals. Alan Banks got the first as he bundled a Smyth cross over the line, and Arnold Mitchell got the second with a terrific 25-yard drive. Two minutes from time, after a reversion to the first-half pattern. George Ley ran in just at the right moment to get his first-ever Football League goal as he headed home Thorne's corner kick. All three of these goals were really well deserved. The first because Banks did enough to score half a dozen times and saw his work come to nothing. Always chasing and always challenging, he just had to score in the end. The second because Mitchell is one of the men in the City side who gets through a tremendous amount of work every week with not too much praise and often little to show for it. This goal was a just reward for another good game.

ONE OF THE BEST

The third because it rounded off
what was, I though, one of the best
displays George Ley has given in the 12 Fourth Division games that he has had for City. In the past he has been a slightly shadowy figure on the City's wing, but he was right in the thick of this game and made one of the greatest contributions to the attack. Now it only remains to be seen just what team manager Mr. Jack Edwards will do if Graham Rees is fit for Friday's game at York. It will certainly present a problem and for every thousand City fans there will be a thousand different solutions.

Teams:
Exeter City:
Barnett: Smyth, MacDonald Mitchell, Harvey, Anderson Thorne, Banks, Curtis, Grace, Ley

Chester:
Barton: John Evans.
Starkey George Evans Butler Corbishley Read Metcalfe. Talbot.

Western League 

DORCHETER 7. CITY RESERVES 0

Thompson; Quarrington, Parsons; Rutley, Henderson, Gough; Welsh, Clark, Redwood, Edgar, Spiers,

Scorers
Dorchester House 2, Fuge 2, Greening, McGuigan, Curtis,

THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY 1964.

HENDERSON IS ON TRANSFER LIST.

At his own request, John Henderson, the 22 year old Scots born forward signed by Exeter City from Charlton just over a year ago, has been placed on the transfer list, he has made 20 League appearances this season and scored six goals in the LeagueCity will be hoping to recover the fee that they paid for him,