Gray <45
Gordon 48
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: G.W. Hamilton (Motherwell)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
On watching the display of Rangers against Ayr United at Somerset Park, the question that forced itself upon me was – What IS wrong with Rangers? It is true that they won with ten men after being a goal down, yet although always more dangerous in attack, and displaying greater polish in style than their opponents, there was an element luck in their success. Whatever the answer be, Rangers were quite good enough to beat Ayr with ten men, although the home team played grandly at times, hemmed in the Rangers on several occasions, and missed much better scoring chances. Had Bennett been able to remain to the end and continue the display and combination which he had struck up with Alex Smith, it would probably have been a better day for Rangers. Reid sought to begin the scoring in the first minute, but his shot lacked the usual force, and Herbertson saved. Duncan then crossed a nice ball to Smith, but it glanced off Alec’s toe and went past the post. For some time Ayr pressed, their players excelling with long accurate passes, always in the direction of goal, and thus the game was pretty fast. After Smith and Bennett had delighted their followers with one or two combined runs, the Rangers inside left fell victim to his own pluck. Later came Ayr’s goal. Gray shot past Campbell to Hempsey. The Ibrox custodian caught the ball, but before he could get it away, Gray was on his top. The Ibrox custodian was close on his top. The custodian was close tothe upright, so that he had only one side from which to throw the ball out, and in turning to do so, Gray either banged the ball out of Hempsey’s hands or the latter knocked it against the post, but the great fact was that it lay in the net, and indicated first blood for the home team. It was during the second half that Rangers put in a spell of the one-back game, but due to three causes – inability to do it thoroughly, the kind of game served up by Ayr, and the referee shutting his eyes occasionally – there were not many offside decisions. Gordon took Bennett’s place and Fulton went to left half. Before the game had been restarted two minutes, Gordon got the ball some twenty’ five yards out from Herbertson, and his shot gave the Ayr man no opportunity of saving it. The Ayr team had hardly recovered from this reverse when Reid got in one of his first-time drives from about the same distance out, and the ball flashed past Herbertson shoulder high, travelling partly across the goal. After the sensational scoring feat of the Rangers, the most exciting incident of the second half was the goal that did not come off for Ayr. Goodwin tipped the ball to Hempsey, who saved neatly. Campbell caught on and repeated his new specialty kick, and banged the ball against an opponent. Goodwin rushed in and got to the leather before Campbell could recover, and simultaneously Hempsey, scenting the danger, ran out to do likewise. Thus Goodwin had a tenantless goal at his mercy, but he sent the sphere against the far away upright, where it was returned towards midfield by Fulton. I was rather pleased with the play of Bell for Ayr at back. He is not so showy, but is more sure than McStay. His decision is greater than that of his partner, and when Reid evaded Dainty it was invariably bell who stopped the Rangers’ centre, Dainty was the man of the middle line, but again his defensive tendency was at fault, for more than once he got in the way of the backs. The forwards were fairly good at times, but strange to say the dashing Goodwin was too slow when it came to make up his mind to do something in the finishing line, and whilst Middelton and Gray both covered the ground in spanking style, they shirked the Rangers backs nearly every time. It is difficult to classify the Rangers Hempsey still improves, but showed just a little lack of resource in connection with the goal he lost. He proved that he was not quite devoid of resource and judgment too, for late in the second half he left his charge and cutting in between Cassidy and Gray, prevented an almost certain goal. Campbell served Rangers well, but his kicking was uncertain. You never could tell where he was going to send the leather, and this discounted his value. Galt was the best of the halves, although he put rather much determination into some of his clearances. His wholeheartedness upset the Ayr attack repeatedly. Gordon put in most of his time as a forward, and was very effective. Duncan was not so successful, failing repeatedly to catch up some fine crosses which came from the opposite wing. Reid missed some of these crosses too. He was well watched, and yet his display was up to his standard, and he won the match with a finely-taken goal. Alex Smith obviously missed Bennett - he admitted it to me afterwards – but seems to be as sprightly as ever.
