G Henderson (rebound) xx, 85
Missed Penalties
McCandless pen miss
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: J Binnie (Falkirk)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
All’s well that ends well. That’s about all the consolation the Rangers could get out of the game at Ibrox. They had a terribly hard job winning. Certainly, the Academicals put up a rare, good fight, and you could almost sympathise with them in being beaten. In the first half the Rangers had chances to put the result beyond doubt, but the shooting was bad, probably due, in part to the heavy, wet ball. But the Hamilton defence was sound. The half-backs covered up well, and McCormack and Johnstone would give nothing away and neither would Sommerville. Then Hamilton nearly created a sensation when Brown – off-side, I thought – was allowed to go on. He hit the post with a tremendous shot. Before the interval all of the Academicals were playing confidently and well, and when ends were changed, they set about their opponents in a style that had all the appearances of landing them on the winning side. Just when things were looking real bad for the Light Blues, Archibald got a pass and dribbled into the penalty-box. He was brought down. McCandless took the penalty-kick, Sommerville saved but stumbled away from the ball and Henderson, always alert, dashed in and scored. Fifteen minutes later Morton – Archie remember – made a great little run down and centred beautifully. Henderson was there, and off his head the ball went into the net. That of course, settled it, but I must say again that the Academicals deserve heaps of praise. They finished without Kelly, who was injured. It was a good thing for Rangers that their backs and half-backs were able to show grit when the Academicals forwards were sailing into them in that first ‘quarter’ of the second half. McCandless was fine in meeting the most menacing movements. Ireland shaped very well, and Morton was clever enough to have been worthy of getting more of the ball. As a whole, the Ibrox forwards were too jumpy. I thought the ground conditions were better turned to advantage by the Academicals. Their defence was sound, even if a little lucky. Sommerville could not have done better. McCormack was as good as I have ever seen him, and Thomson a half-back as good as any. But there was not a weaking in the line. The fault of the forwards was as in the case of the other lot, weak finishing, but they played some clever football.
