S Archibald 10
Willis >45
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: Andrew Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Wednesday
Match Trivia
If all mid-week games could compare with this one, we saw at Rugby Park yesterday, we would have better crowds attending. As it was 6000 people turned out to see the locals worthily wrest a point from the Rangers. A draw was a good result. Kilmarnock played heroically in the closing stages to force a win, and they almost succeeded. Robb saved once when Skillen drove at Borland centre. Skillen was injured in the process. Eleven minutes after the start Archibald scored. Alec did his bit as well as any one could, and if Morton, the ‘Killie’ keeper, had done his part as well, there would have been no goal. He had his hands to the ball, but let it go to the net instead of clearing as a goalkeeper of first repute should. Before that, however, Borland had beaten Reid nicely. He centred the ball low down, and if, in his stride, Willis had got to it, this would have been a scorer. Robb, seeing the centre’s difficulty, came out a yard and saved his side. Throughout the first half the game was furiously contested. The adjective doesn’t denote anything that was really more then keen. This I wish to convey. Eleven minutes after the second half resumption, Kilmarnock equalised, as they deserved. Lyner dropped over a nice ball, and Willis, with his head, did the rest. Robb just missed it. I don’t blame Willie, but perhaps he wondered where all his colleagues were when the Kilmarnock centre-forward was left so open. To the end the game was fought with a keenness that was refreshing. Kilmarnock did most of the attacking, and occasionally they almost seemed as if they would win. At the other end, Cunningham, Morton and Cairns misses when they tried, but McDonald, with as big a ‘pinch’ as Willis had in the first half, failed to drive the ball home. I must say that Morton failed at a crucial moment between the Kilmarnock goalposts. That goal should never have been scored. While he was fit, Brown did well. But, injured early, he was off for a time, and never was the same after he came back. I liked Gibson, and when Hugh Morton went to the right back position, he held his namesake, Alan. The duels between the duo were much to the liking if the Ayrshire crowd. Playing his first League game, young Adam of St Roch’s did very well indeed. In the attack there was one outstanding man – his name, Matthew Smith. The biggest compliment I can pay Mattha’ is that Tommy Cairns never left him. Willis, as a makeshift centre-forward, did very well, and the wing men did not so badly. I liked Borland. In defence the Rangers were sound. Robb did his work cleanly, Reid and Manderson made no mistakes that I saw, and Dixon was best in the half-back line. Forward, Archibald was his true self – when he is, no one can beat him. Cunningham and Cairns were good, but Alan Morton was well held. McDonald requires more experience
