Match ended 0-0
Match Information
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: unknown - to be confirmed
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
We were favoured with no spectacular goals at Motherwell; we were not regaled with anything like so many thrills in this gruelling Rangers’ match as when the Celts were at Fir Park last December. Saturday’s game will not live so long in one’s memory as that stirring contest; still, I should not like to have missed it. Every inch of ground was fought for, and if the Rangers, without the injured Hempsey, had the better of a really splendid second half, in which ‘the ten’ put in a bit extra, Motherwell had the pull before the interval. Therefore, I might say it was a case of quits. Of course the greater credit belongs to the ‘Light Blues’ – reason of their handicap. Some people questioned the wisdom of robbing the attack of Gordon’s services when the doctor pronounced judgment on Hempsey’s damaged left elbow, but the Ibrox director’s were really helpless – they were faced with Hobson’s choice, in fact. None of the other boys felt like taking on the job. It was a happy decision, as it turned out. Certainly Gordon was missed in front, but he did his bit behind. James was a trifle lucky, I reckon, when he diverted a truly great drive by Ferguson, and again when he cleared a teaser of a free-kick from McIntosh, but in his anxious moments – and he had a few of them - he never turned a hair. The International half-back’s experience and confidence – call it cocksuredness, if you will – really carried him through. A like Hempsey earlier, Gordon received every assistance from Manderson and McQueen. The Irishman was immense, and the ex-Parkhead Junior’s mistakes were like angel’s visits. Then Dixon, who had taken a tight grip of Hugh Ferguson from the beginning, seemed to take it into his head that if Rangers went down the onus of the defeat would rest with him. The little man ‘Fra’ Owdham,’ who was seldom off the ball, beat his previous best. Bowie was Bowie – that’s enough; and Martin was again the happy-go-lucky Bo’ness boy we used to see working so cleverly in the Hearts’ middle line in the days when the war was young. Archibald and Cairns, all the time and Gordon before he pulled the custodian’s sweater over his head, caused ever-watchful McSkimming. Murray and Rundell most concern. What a grand back Motherwell’s Sheffield man is! Bob’s kicking was as clean as his judgment was superb. He and Duncan Finlayson saw that Brown was not allowed many chances to get in any of his own peculiar work. The ball did not run too sweetly for the Ibrox centre, whose nearest thing was reserved for the earlier part of the second half, when he missed narrowly after boring past a couple of opponents. Young started very well indeed, and if the Lochgelly man tapered off later he perhaps came nearer to winning the match than anybody. He skimmed the bar with a beauty just before that unsuccessful break-through by his centre. Young is worth persevering with. McIntosh and Stewart, fine half-backs both, kept nicely in touch with the Fir Park forwards, among whom Rankin’s was the mastermind. He steadied the line beautifully – most of his passes were accuracy itself, and his best shot was cleared by Hempsey with difficulty. The Ibrox goalkeeper’s left arm was hanging limp then. Ferguson, lively as usual, might have snipped the goal he watched, waited and worked so consistently for had Morgan got in his centres just a little more slick
