W Reid
Travers
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: A Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
When the Wizard of the North wrote of the revelry and rout and many a shout of the Border lads pursuing the football play, I fancy he had in mind a game something after the style of the one at Boghead Park. The revelry was there. Revelry, in fact, was the keynote. And the shouts were there, too, for though the ranks of Dumbarton’s supporters have been sadly thinned by the number gone to war, those that are left are always good for ‘a little extra.’ But if we had revelry and the shout, we had no rout. The game was well drawn. It might have been more easily won by Dumbarton than by Rangers, for the city team’s goal was oftener threatened, but taking one thing with another, it was well drawn. Dumbarton, stung up for a great attempt, had so much the better of the first half as to more than merit their lead of a goal at the interval. For a time after the restart Dumbarton seemed fit to keep the game going on the old lines, but than a change in formation of the Rangers’ forward line effected a change in the play for their own good, and I fancy also that about this stage the former high tension exertions of the home players began to have their effect. The last half-hour saw Rangers going out might and main for a winning goal, just as Dumbarton had been going for the leading goal in the first half. ‘Twas a breezy, exciting match; both teams were making every post a winning post; and if the play in every respect was not superfine, no one grumbled about that. For spirited sport is superior to soulless finesse any day. As for the loss of the point, I don’t believe that Rangers grudged it to Dumbarton. Keen rivals before even there was a League, there still exists between the clubs a sympathy arising from the memory of many keen, aye, bitter, struggles, in which they each proved foemen worthy of the other’s steel. Facing a westering sun, Dumbarton looked to have the conditions against them to start with, but they made light of it. In the first minute their forwards were driving fast for the Rangers goal when the arm of a man in blue struck the ball. There were vigorous claims for a penalty, and when these were ignored the Dumbarton forwards went to the attack with more vim than before. They collected corners with monotonous frequency, more than one of these from shots that were going in the right direction. These Dumbarton forwards were extremely difficult to hold on the run. There was little attempt at studied control of the ball except on the part of Gettins, who in this half was out by himself as a skilful pedipulator; but the Dumbarton style was well suited to perplex the Rangers defence, and so on several occasions openings were created that should have been turned to account. Lock had one particularly good save from McGregor, when, from a free kick, he palmed the ball out and over the line for a corner. It was a long time before the Rangers forwards could find a game. Gordon, who took the field positively unwell, could not get into tune with Bennett, who took often found it necessary to dribble into the centre. Duncan and Paterson, playing a sort of go-as-you-please wing game on the left, were a shade better, but I could see little danger in either wing, except on a few occasions. Once Duncan cut out to the line to take a pass from Paterson, and centreing low and swiftly, Reid ran in to clinch it when Hamilton smartly saved. But after a little the Rangers forwards improved, and in rapid succession the Dumbarton goal had escapes from a finely-placed corner by Paterson, a dash by Reid from pass through by Pursell, and a fast header from Duncan. Then Dumbarton got into the swing again, and after the Rangers defence had been on the grill for a fair spell the goal that was deserved on play fell into Dumbarton’s lap. Sur enough, it followed on one of the crop of corners. It was a good thing for Dumbarton that there were such things as corners, because though they had their batteries unmasked all the time, there was extreme rashness in the manner of shooting. But anyhow, Thom placed this corner nicely, and as Lock tried to clutch the ball instead of punching it clear, Travers was able to head it into the net. There were only five minutes to go until the interval, but time enough for Dumbarton nearly to score another, Thom just failing to gather the ball from a shot by Rowan that went across the face of the goal, and fell at the young winger’s feet. I had imagined that the wisdom of a change in the Rangers’ forwards line would have become apparent by this time, but evidently not, for the team resumed as before. However, when Dumbarton, first through Rowan, and then Ferguson, brought the Rangers goal within hail of falling, in the first minutes of the second half, Captain Gordon decided that something must be done. He went into right half position, and the forwards assumed their old formation – Duncan, Bowie, Reid, Bennett and Paterson. Then we saw some forward play worthy of the name. Speed, dash and cleverness were introduced all over the line. The Dumbarton defence was suddenly confronted with an entirely new problem, and before they could completely solve it a goal was lost, and the game levelled. Duncan had been taking his men in with swift touchline runs, and the score looked likely to come from that quarter; but no. A pass out to the left dragged a bit, and McGrory should have gone for it. He was not quick enough about the business, and Reid perceiving a hundred-to-one chance of forestalling him, dashed over, snapped up the ball, and with a vicious left-foot shot crashed it past Hamilton. The remainder of the match was as thrilling as a piece of Deadwood Dick fiction. What with Duncan’s runs and centre, Reid’s darts and shots, and Paterson’s centres on the one hand, and the recurring raids by the Dumbarton forwards, there was never a moment dull. Most people though that Riddell had fires through the winning goal when he glanced the post and shook the net – from the outside. Hamilton saved two tearing shots from Reid, and on still another occasion ran out with fine anticipation to foil the Rangers centre when the situation was critical. It was hereabout that Rangers were for the first time supreme, but the effort came too late. I should have been rather sorry to see Dumbarton beaten. With the early morning frost thawing in the ground, the foothold was not absolutely secure, and on that account some little schemes went agley. Hamilton, in the Dumbarton goal, played one of his cleverest game. Lock also was safe. The back play was more resolute than stylish. McGrory and Ritchie stood their ground fearlessly and well, and an odd miskick here and there was easily pardonable. Neither Craig nor Kelso were guiltless of that, and the Dumbarton pair were the steadier, taking them all through. Kelso stopped many of Dumbarton’s most threatening movements. He and Duncan were the only two Dumbarton natives on the field, and they were both wearing Rangers’ colours. Dumbarton possessed an advantage at half-back that was embodied in the collective height and girth of Riddell, Davidson and McGregor. But, of course, the insipidity of the Rangers’ attack in the first half played into their hands; they were more
