Exeter City v Heybridge Swifts (FA Cup R1) Matchday Thread

[PeteUSA]

Can I just say a couple of things about the game? I think the result could well have been different if Heybridge had had a better keeper. I know its a given that he was badly at fault for our third, but I thought he was poor on Stockleys header too. He should have advanced towards that cross, instead of remaining static in the middle of his goal. Him not coming and trying to claim the ball gave Stockley an easy glanced header from about three yards! Nothing much he could do with Stockleys shot for the other goal, but he didn't hit that ball cleanly; in fact it was miss-hit! The result could have been very different.

Reid continues to look uninterested IMHO, and as many others have said the pairing of him and Stockley just doesn't work. IMHO, he could be played on the right wing (or whatever its called these days). He wouldn't have to run all that much. We've had many excellent wingers who played at a plodding pace, noteably Gordon Dale and Tony Scott. They weren't all like locomotives i.e. Eric Welsh and Nelson Stiffle, and boy did they get the job done!

EDIT: Rog, I'm trying hard to post about the game!

[PeteUSA]

EDIT: Rog, I'm trying hard to post about the game!

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump my own post.

[Sexton Blake]

Can I just say a couple of things about the game? I think the result could well have been different if Heybridge had had a better keeper. I know its a given that he was badly at fault for our third, but I thought he was poor on Stockleys header too. He should have advanced towards that cross, instead of remaining static in the middle of his goal. Him not coming and trying to claim the ball gave Stockley an easy glanced header from about three yards! Nothing much he could do with Stockleys shot for the other goal, but he didn't hit that ball cleanly; in fact it was miss-hit! The result could have been very different.

Reid continues to look uninterested IMHO, and as many others have said the pairing of him and Stockley just doesn't work. IMHO, he could be played on the right wing (or whatever its called these days). He wouldn't have to run all that much. We've had many excellent wingers who played at a plodding pace, noteably Gordon Dale and Tony Scott. They weren't all like locomotives i.e. Eric Welsh and Nelson Stiffle, and boy did they get the job done!

What a combination Gordon Dale the wizard of dribble able to beat a defender on a six pence then often coming back to beat him again. He was class and without doubt the most skilled player I have ever seen playing in City’s colours. Only problem his football brain was light years away from any of his teammates and most of the time they could not anticipate what he was going to do. Although having said that his point crosses, similar to Stan Matthews’s to Nat Lofthouse, used to result in a lot of Ted Callands goals.

Then on the other wing Nelson Stiffle the fastest player I have ever seen in a City shirt. His electric pace would leave any defender in his wake. As you say Pete they used to get the job done.

[PeteUSA]

I'm sure you remember the Luton FA Cup game at SJP with going on 20,000 in attendance Sexton. Luton were a prominent old First Division club back then. Its a pity that Billy Bingham felt the need early in the game to crock Dale with a disgraceful tackle that would have been a straight red card today! In those days before substitutions, Dale was just a limping passenger for the rest of the game. He could barely stand up! We had scored first from an OG by Alan Daniel, but the ten men couldnt hold on.

[edwin_price]

I think the result could well have been different if Heybridge had had a better keeper.

Or if any of their players had been better... or ours worse.

[ECFC Music]

I'm sure you remember the Luton FA Cup game at SJP with going on 20,000 in attendance Sexton. Luton were a prominent old First Division club back then. Its a pity that Billy Bingham felt the need early in the game to crock Dale with a disgraceful tackle that would have been a straight red card today! In those days before substitutions, Dale was just a limping passenger for the rest of the game. He could barely stand up! We had scored first from an OG by Alan Daniel, but the ten men couldnt hold on.

Actually Pete what i remember as a young boy was how Stiffle made his opposing full back seem like a carthorse as he flicked the ball past him one side and ran around his other side to gather the ball,not only once but numerous times.

[PeteUSA]

Actually Pete what i remember as a young boy was how Stiffle made his opposing full back seem like a carthorse as he flicked the ball past him one side and ran around his other side to gather the ball,not only once but numerous times.

Stiffle was a bit special wasnt he, my mate? It makes you wonder why Bournemouth let him go! The goal that we scored against Luton was from a low cross from Stiffle that Daniels put past his own keeper; England International Ron Baynham. Sadly Nelson died about 10 years ago now, in his native India.

[Sexton Blake]

Hi Pete “tempus fugit” as they say but still good to share memories like this with yourself and ECFC M. The Luton game will long remain in my memory. I was sat in the OG and fairly close to the incident. The ball was passed out wide from the kick off straight to Dale and he hardly had chance to touch it let alone get it under control before Bingham hit him, no attempt to play the ball just the man, and he literally ended up in the front row of the Granstand.

I have never to this day seen a more blatant, premeditated and deliberate act to take a player out of a game and from memory the referee did not even speak to him. With his skills he could have been our match winner and Luton were well aware of that. Had it happened in any high street Bingham would have been up before the Magistrate the following morning facing a charge of GBH.

As ECFC M said Nelson Stiffle had a great game. He was also difficult to defend against because unlike Dale, who would take the ball up to a defender and then beat him with sheer dribbling skill Stiffle would only have the ball at his feet for a few seconds before flicking the ball around his full back and leaving him dead with his blistering pace.

Just a thought perhaps a new thread could be started “Memories of FA Cup Ties gone by”.

[Banksy]

Crumbs , how do you all remember these things? I must have been at some of the games , can picture all the faces , not the facts! Although , to be fair , I was starting to involved with schoolboy football around then so probably didn't get to that many games.
Dale and Stiffle , what a combo , can still picture Ted Calland and Graham Rees and the like too.