A Morton <45
McDiarmid 60
Match Information
Attendance: 40,000
Referee: Andrew Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Ever since Alan Morton joined the Rangers from Queen’s Park the sparkling left-wing forward had been a thorn in the flesh of Third Lanark. Two years ago, he scored a goal against the men of Cathkin with a curling, drooping shot that took more than James Brownlie by surprise. In the opening League match of the currant year, when the clubs met at Cathkin Park. Morton again distinguished himself by scoring a goal in exactly a similar manner from the same shot. The singular coincidence was repeated yesterday in the second round of the Glasgow Cup competition on the same ground. The latest feat was probably the best of the three. Over 36,000 spectators paid for admission, and half an hour of strenuous football had developed without either side having scored, when Morton, who was practically unmarked and lame, sent in a drooping shot into goal, which deceived Brownlie and went into the goal at the post. The Ibrox Park left winger was playing under a severe handicap. He got a knock to the right knee when the game was twelve minutes old, which necessitated his retirement from the field for six minutes. When he reappeared amid a chorus of applause from a big Ibrox following he limped so badly that he could not raise a gallop. In the circumstances the right defenders of Third Lanark imagined they could afford almost to ignore him. Scott and Slavin played more into the centre of the Ibrox attack, and Morton contented himself when he got the ball by slipping it to Cairns or to the following half-back Muirhead. The sequel was disastrous for Third Lanark, and the goal so surprisingly gained had a decided effect for the better on the morale of his own team. As you may surmise, the Rangers gained confidence, and in the end, they won by 2 goals to 0. They were the better side in a struggle that did not reveal the players of either side at their best. James Brownlie may well reflect on his bad luck in matches against the Light Blues. The second goal he lost yesterday again found him at a disadvantage. It occurred when the second half was nine minutes gone. In the first place he cleared a drive from the right that compelled him to draw himself backwards to get rid of the ball. It did not travel far, and when Cairns and McDiarmid got in the way to prevent a clearance the centre forward, who was operating in the place of Henderson, just managed to squeeze the ball home for a second goal. In brief, that is the story of how Third Lanark had their Cup hopes blasted. The rival teams showed their best form against the wind. The Rangers beat up in the face of it in the first half, when they seemed just a yard or two quicker in getting to the ball than opponents. This was more noticeable in the case of the half-backs, and also with the inside forwards. Cairns and Cunningham were in particularly fine fettle, and the passing was low and quick. It was just the proper game to play, and if Morton had been able to respond as Archibald did in the first half the probability is that the scheme of Ibrox attack would have been even more successful. When the Rangers were two goals up, they gave you the impression that they had always something in reserve. At times the co-operation between Cunningham, Archibald, Meiklejohn, McDiarmid and occasionally with Arthur Dixon, was interrupted only when James Walker and Willie MacAndrew forced then to send a long, wide pass out to the walking gentleman on the left, who had given his team the key to victory. Once when this had happened, midway through the second half, a shot which Archibald had meant for the Cathkin goalkeeper went away out on the line to the left. Morton hirpled after the ball, to the amusement of the crowd, caught it on the line, and sent in a shot that might have meant another goal had his clubmates been ready. Little things like these reveal the wisdom of even a lame player keeping to the field. The run of the play was often haphazard, and the last half-hour was not so spirited as the first. The Rangers’ forwards got more support from their half-backs than the red-jersey attackers got from theirs. This was the fourth time I had seen the Rangers this season, and making allowances for the weather conditions, I thought the winners’ half-backs showed greater activity against Third Lanark and were more uniform in the standard of form the trio touched, than I saw previously. Meiklejohn was the artist of the three. He generally turned back with the ball before slipping it on, and now, again, he followed Arthur Dixon’s example by shooting for goal. In these attempts he found better direction than the speedy, untiring Lancashire man in the middle position. Muirhead was cleverer in this section of the team than he was as a forward against the men of Motherwell. The glaring defect of the Third Lanark team was in all-round faulty combination, and the want of a shooting forward. Brownlie, like Robb, saved several fairly difficult shots. The ex-Armadale goalkeeper revealed more confidence than he usually does by coming out of goal more frequently to get to the ball than he usually does. Brownlie’s best saved were from Cunningham and Cairns, and Robb’s from Reid and Frank Walker. Sound back play was witnessed on both sides, and just because Slavin and Bobby Orr were more frequently and harder played on to by their opponents, the Cathkin pair deserve a great deal of credit. Orr was especially good. In the last twenty minutes every kick of his was ‘goosed’ by a section of the crows, when there was no justification for such offensive conduct. Orr has been always an ideal player, and his courage and demeanour you associate with a man who knows his duty to the public as well as to his team. If the Cathkin half-backs seemed a shade slower than formerly, they lasted the game well, as was proved by the plucky way they attempted to force the game when the chances of their success appeared hopeless. James Walker was just a shade superior to his colleague. Like the rangers, the Third Lanark developed their attack mostly on the right and down the centre, but they erred by playing into the feet of the waiting defenders, who thus had an easier task than the Cathkin backs. I believe, if they had played more to Hillhouse, who was kept in enforced idleness at lengthy periods in the second half, the general play of the forwards would have been better. It was gratifying to find the police so energetic in preventing people from bringing flags and banners into a crowded enclosure. Not a vestige of colour or trace of a pole was to be seen. The one discordant note emanated from a solitary rickety close on half-time. Sir John Ure Primrose, Bart; MR WRF Nelson MO; Baillie James A Crerar, and Colonel JP Wilson, were among the official coterie on the balcony.
