Match ended 0-0
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: R Innes (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
A nice mew flag will hang on one of the flag posts over the North Stand at Ibrox nest season. The two that have done service this year are not weatherworn, but the Ibrox fellows like to keep things fresh, and one will have to go for the new ornament. For the Rangers have won the league once more. Six times in post-war years have they landed the coveted honour. It is a record of which they may well be proud. Congratulations! Against Dundee they only got the point they needed to make siccar – but in everything but scoring goals they were the superior side. A draw seems a funny result for a side that during the whole second half was playing its backs on the centre line. That was Rangers’ position. Hamilton could have indulged in forty winks. In the first half it was a great game – Rangers with a string breeze in their faces having just the better of matters, although Hamilton was busier keeper in this period. A word of praise would not go amiss to the Ibrox keeper for his splendid saves from McNab and Cassidy, these were tit-bits in a game that was ever fast and clever. The inability of the Rangers’ team to score goals, was probably due to the saving of the other goalkeeper on the field – Marsh. He saved shots that would have beaten many a keeper. He was a genuine stumbling-rock to the Ibrox team. Dundee got away fortunate with a draw. There was no doubt about it. In front, Rangers had a line that combined, and two wing half-backs of the highest class. It was in these positions that Dundee compared badly. In the second half when it became obvious an easing up in the play of the Rangers, and a devil-may-care attitude in front of goal – the shots that went over and round Marsh’s goal were legion. Meiklejohn was the most likely scorer in this period, and he gave Marsh plenty of opportunity of showing his talent. Even the constant pressure of the Rangers did not take all interest out of the game, for the Dundee defence did splendidly in this gruelling time, but the crowd was not too happy at Rangers’ repeated failure to find the net, and when the team trooped off the field winners of the League Championship, was there a tremendous yell? Did the crowd burst on to the pitch and properly show their enthusiasm? No! there was not a single cheep. It was rather an anti-climax to a great season’s work. However, that is the supporters’ look out, and here is how the play ran. Rangers lost the toss and Dundee set them to face a strong breeze. That didn’t deter them from starting like champions should. Marsh had a really hot time of it in the opening minutes. Morton lobbed into the goal-mouth, and Meiklejohn just failed to turn the ball in. Then a Cunningham free-kick dashed in the right way, and Marsh saved very well indeed. But his save was as nothing to what the Rangers keeper had to deal with a few minutes later. The Dundee forwards got into their stride, and after a corner off Gray, taken nicely by Gilmour, McNab fastened on about 15 yards out, and with one of the mist terrific drives shot straight and true under the bar. Hamilton was masterly in turning it away for a corner. A delightful touch by Fleming sent Morton cantering off. Marsh parried the Ibrox captain’s shot, and from the bound-out Archibald hit the underside of the bar and the ball came out again. This time a Dundee defender relieved by putting past for a corner. Fleming brought Marsh to his knees, but Meiklejohn fouled the keeper in his attempt to clear. Campbell was offered a fine open goal when Gray failed to clear a long shot up the centre, but the Dens Parker was off the mark. Play ranged from end to end, and neither goalkeeper could complain of having too little to do. With the wind with them the Dundonians kept peppering in long shots at Hamilton, but if he had less to do, March had plenty of troublesome minutes with shots from Archibald, Fleming, Morton and Cunningham. Archibald was nearabout with a shot from the wing, but the wind as much as anything spoiled the effort. Meiklejohn immediately after skied when in good position. Farrell sent over two nice balls, but there was no way through the Rangers’ defence. Forcing a corner, the same player placed the ball nicely from the flag, and Campbell had Hamilton on tenterhooks before the ball was eventually cleared. Cassidy culminated another Dundee raid with a rattling shot which Hamilton fingered over the bar with little to spare. Play was back again at the Dundee end when the half-time whistle went. Dundee started off the second venture very successfully, and a dangerous-looking centre from Gilmour gave McCandless some trouble, but Rangers came again, and Archibald had two attempts blocked on their way to the goal-mouth. Fleming was even bearer when helping on one from the foot of Cunningham. This spell of Rangers’ offensive over, Campbell forced a corner off McCandless, bit it proved as fruitless as all the others, and Rangers came again, Morton and Cunningham shooting past in quick succession. Fleming looked, and was hailed, a goal-scorer after rounding Rankine at point-blank range, but the centre planked the ball too high. Meiklejohn’s shot a few minutes later was the likeliest of the half, but Marsh saved confidently, as he did when craig tried a long one. There came two corners to the Light Blues before Shaw got in the way of a Morton volley. A short dash up the centre by Campbell, and the Rangers were back at it again. Corner after corner came their way, but never a scoring shot. Three times did Muirhead send the ball over the bar, and Meiklejohn headed into Marsh’s hands. Dundee were handicapped by an injury to Cassidy who in the closing minutes occupied the left wing berth. Meiklejohn, of all the Ibrox confederacy, had an idea where the goal lay, and a shot of his looked the ’goods’, but Marsh saved well. Archibald nearly made amends in the last minute when he skimmed the outside of the post. With about the last kick Hamilton found himself in action. With the ball so light and the wind so high, control was naturally difficult, and in the circumstances, play was necessarily of the go-ahead type. Dundee’s defence was probably the hardest worked division on the field, and right creditably they came out of the encounter. Marsh, I have said, was Rangers’ bogey so far as goal-scoring was concerned, but Naper Thomson, ever on the alert and general-in-chief, broke up many dangerous attacks before the keeper’s services were in request. Rankine too, deserves praise for his strong defensive work. McNab was a slightly better wing half than Crawford, but neither approached the standard of Muirhead, who was the best half on the field, and Craig. In goal, Rangers were very sound, and at full back both Gray and McCandless did very well in the first period, and the very little they did in the second period can call for no condemnation. The main use of McCandless during this period was for taking the free-kicks that resulted from his strategy in placing the Dundee centre offside. I have seen Shaw play better, but he held Campbell in check, and was often up amongst his forwards when they were crowding on all sail in the second period. In the van, Rangers, considering the conditions, gave a smart display only to be spoiled by reckless finishing. Fleming in the centre was ever a worrier, and with a shot could have scored goals and goals for all the opening he made for himself. Meiklejohn, after a quiet beginning, ended Rangers most successful forward, while Cunningham, Morton and Archibald combined to make a more or less efficient line. Dundee in front were disjoined. Young Farrell for all his experience did quite well, and his corner-kicks were beautifully placed. Cassidy and Townrow were the most prominent of the others. Campbell found himself too often in offside traps to be of great value to his side but was a dangerous man near goal.
