McKay 27
A Cunningham 66
Match Information
Attendance: 22,000
Referee: P Craigmyle (Aberdeen)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
I do not remember ever having played a Cup tie at Falkirk in my football days as a Celt. All my battled there were in the League. I ever had respect for the Bairn’s o’ Falkirk and enjoyed a brief chat with Jock Drummond in the pavilion after the Rangers had retired yesterday worthy winners of a hard dust-up by two goals to nothing. As in had toddled over from Croy the previous week, when the Celts were there, and could do no better than draw with Falkirk, I was in the fortunate position to make a comparison between the two games. I never had much hope of the Falkirk forwards doing much damage to the Rangers’ record, but as it was a cup tie, past experience had made me a bit cautious. I thought it possible for Falkirk to escape defeat, but I could no further than that. When I reached the ground, I heard that Mulhall could not take his place in the Falkirk team. He was their best forward against the Celts. The young fellow Blair, of Saltcoats, who chipped in as partner to Cowan, is to the light side, and the occasion was a bit too big for him. This was not Falkirk’s only handicap, as Allan, the big young centre half, was down with influenza. Another big, hefty youngster in McIlwaine made not a bad show in his place. Overall, considering the mixture of experience and youth in the home team, I thought Falkirk came not so badly out of it. Their forwards were never together in the first half. There was no punch in their attack. The first concerted movement was delayed until the second half had gone ten minutes. The men seemed stickers, but the real craft of the forward game was all on the one side. Dougal was the one forward who could bore through and hold his own, but he was deficient in shooting power. I like Dougal beat as a right half. He is a big, game fellow. I looed in vain for nippy movements and shooting from the two centres. Cox may be a diamond in the rough. His football is without polish, and he was over-fond of showing off his one trick – a back-heeler. Cox will have his day. I had to wait for mine. I expected more from Fleming. He was the one disappointment in a Rangers’ line which is gradually getting back to something like what it was but is still much short of the Rangers’ standard. I liked to see fast football. Clean and hard. The pace of the first half was a fair corker, and there was not a great deal in it. I liked the sportsmanship of the crowd. There was break in twenty minutes from the advertised tome for the kick-off, but Craigmyle had the teams out in a jiffy, and there was no interruption to the play. The early started helped to steady things. When the first corner kick fell to Falkirk at the congested area the people made room for Cowan to get his kick. They were out to see the game through; not to mar it. And Mr ‘Bob’ Liddell told me it was a record gathering for the ground. Falkirk for fair ‘sports’. The rangers gave their opponents and object lesson in how goals are got. I liked the way Tom Malone steadies to get in his pass when Gowdy and another Falkirk man were likely to cross his tracks. His pass out to McKay, which brought the first goal in twenty-three minutes was a studied effort, and McKay flashed the ball low into the far corner of the net. Better still – a long way better – was Andy Cunningham’s clinking long drive when the second half had gone nineteen minutes. The Rangers were on the attack. Andy was lying back clear of the others. It is a favourite trick of his. As the ball was slipped back to him, he drove a terrific low ball for the second goal. What a beauty! Another lesson in shooting for Falkirk. The home players gingered up in the last fifteen minutes. They tested Hamilton more frequently then than they had done for the rest of the time the game lasted. Not a shot was in the locker when the chances came. I liked the rangers’ defensive tactics in the second half. Gray lay well up the field, with Arthur Dixon doing the donkey work at back in his own inimitable style. Hard graft it was, bur he made sure of getting the ball. They used to call ‘Eck’ McNair the icicle back when I was at Parkhead. He did everything in such a cool way. Well, Gray is another McNair. He is the coolest young back I have seen for a long, long time. One day he will be like McNair. He is fast and kicks with more style than Hamilton. I thought Hamilton played better then I have ever seen him. He was always a resolute chap. He gave me the impression every time he kicked the ball that he was trying to burst it. Once he gave Cowan a rude shaking up, but the Falkirk man, plucky as his mates, got his own back later on to square the account. A drove of pigs must have crossed the Rangers ‘path the day Craig left Parkhead for Ibrox Park. Anyway, it was a lucky day for the Rangers. He was quite the best half-back on the field, and not much short of being actually the very best. I refer that distinction for Cunningham, who was at the top of his game. Todd was the best of a hefty Falkirk trio, and in the first half this line quite pleased me, considering the inexperience of two of them. Tom Muirhead was the most stylish helf of all six. I do not exaggerate when I say that the wing halfs of Celtic – Wilson and McFarlane - touched the highest standard the previous week on the same field I have seen all season. Scott, Gowdy and Ferguson did extra well for Falkirk in a punishing game for defenders. Gowdy is a handy fellow in a defence anywhere. As a left back he impressed me by the confident and quick way he went out to his men. I thought McKay not so good as he was when in Greenock. Still, he is a clever forward, and he would be more effective were he to stick to the game he played with Morton. He took Cairns’ place at short notice. Alan Morton was as lively as a needle in a sewing machine. He got centres across from the goal line in a way no other player could do, and he was deadly anxious to get a goal. Malone combined well with Cunningham. The game was not the great contest I expected. It was hard enough, but the defects in the Falkirk attack made their forwards effectiveness of the rangers more striking by the low standard the local men set
