Fleming 21
B McPhail 28
Match Information
Attendance: 92,084
Referee: J Thomson (Hamilton)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Rangers romped into the Final. I can think of no better way of describing the happenings at Hampden Park yesterday afternoon. Heart of Midlothian cut a sorry figure in their endeavour to stop the League Champions in their triumphal Cup career. I did not expect that the pride of Edinburgh would win, but I certainly expected that they would make a better fight of it than they did. Only for a few brief minutes – just before Battles scored his splendid goal – did Hearts show any of the skill one expects from aspiring Cup finalists. Rangers, despite the fact that they were set to face a teethy breeze, did not take long to discover the weak spots in the Hearts’ team, and with Archibald and Marshall at once dropping into their best form, it was no more than twenty minutes before they had the game won – and well won. It was good work between the right-wing pair that brought the first two goals, Fleming getting the first and McPhail the second. After this we saw a bit of the real Hearts, and when Battles snapped up the only chance he had in the whole game, and scored a grand goal via the crossbar, it looked as if Hearts might still find their feet. However, within five minutes Rangers had disillusioned them properly. Two more goals were added by Jimmy Fleming, and as a result the centre made himself the hero of the hour by notching a grand hat-trick. Had the game ended at that I should have come home satisfied. Unfortunately, it did not. I am not going to pain my readers by going into details of the subsequent play. Suffice be it to say that the game was forgotten in an orgy of rough stuff. From a football point of view the second half called for no comment whatever. Fouls were two a penny. A colleague of mine, who says he was counting, avers that thirty-six were given against Rangers. And Rangers weren’t the only sinners, Hearts, too were pulled up, although not so frequently. 92,000 spectators watched this second half fiasco. It is any wonder, I heard many of them muttering as they left the ground. “We will have to give this up and follow Rugby”. It is quite time a soccer purity campaign was started in Britain. Our great game is falling into the trap of commercialism and is losing its sporting outlook. Every vital match I have witnessed this season has degenerated into a rough and tumble, and I have come home with an unwholesome taste in my mouth. To return, however, to the game at Hampden, I would say that Rangers in the first-half were all-conquering. Their display of football was too much for a Hearts’ team that was neither strong in defence nor forceful in attack. For Rangers I was most impressed by the grand work of Archibald, Marshall and Fleming, who were the match-winning trio. The left wing was disorganised by an injury to McPhail, which impaired his usefulness and caused him to see out time on the wing. Morton, however, showed that he is in dandy form for his English cap, and sent over two grand crosses that gave Fleming goals. Perhaps the strongest part of the rangers’ team was in the middle. Buchanan, Craig and Meiklejohn bottled up Hearts’ attack, and managed to give the attack a lot of assistance. Meiklejohn had the hardest task of the lot in holding the elusive Battles, but in spite of the fact that the centre scored, he did his work well. The two backs gave nothing away. It was good to see Gray doing all that was asked of him. It will make the Selectors less worried about the right-back position for Wembley. Tom Hamilton was another that came out of it with distinction. The big Renfrew boy was not far off international class. Now is that a hint? In the Hearts’ team I am going to single out two players. I consider that they were the only two real successes in the team. One is Anderson, the young right back, who kept his head up throughout, kicked like a hero, and gave a very workmanlike Cup display. He also showed the more seasoned players around him that the game can still be played well – and cleanly. The other is Battles. Barney from the States, ploughed a lonely furrow in attack, and I have no doubt he would have been a hero in a good team. He was indomitable and towards the ned, when things had fallen flat, he kept up his enthusiasm, and at one time was the only man up to take a shy that he had strenuously worked for. Of the others in the hearts’ team, I killed best Kerr, R Johnstone, Murray and King. Neither of the two inside forwards struck a game, and I have a feeling that Chalmers was not fully recovered from his dose of the flu. He was anything but happy and could not get the ball to do anything got him. J Johnstone was not too happy holding Fleming, but he got through a lot of hard work, and was too overrun to think about constructive football. Jack Harkness was a much-watched man. I saw a number of the selectors in the stand, and I wonder if they think Jack should have saved at least one of the goals scored against him. My own opinion was that the fourth was saveable if he had run out to meet Morton’s cross instead of letting Fleming get it unchallenged. Otherwise, Harkness played well, although it was obvious that he was very nervous. There was a touch of his best form when he fisted away a high ball from McPhail’s head near the close. Hearts, by winning the toss, took advantage of the breeze, and right away applied the screw. Rangers, however, rallied and from a free-kick taken by Archibald, McPhail just failed to connect. More snappy work on the Rangers right gave Fleming a chance, and the centre hit the outside of his near post with a valiant try. Another Archibald cross followed, and Morton was laid out when he smacked the ball hard over the bar. Hearts improved after this, but they were obviously jumpy and unable to make best use of their chances, and for a long while play lingered unexcitingly near the middle of the field. Following a corner-kick taken by Morton, the ball lingered on Hearts’ goal-line simply asking to be smacked home, but no Ranger was up to take advantage. The next few minutes saw Rangers at their very brightest, and Hearts had a close call once again when a defender stepped in and blocked a scorcher from McPhail. Hearts’ replay was a solo run by Battles and a grand, but ineffective, try by Miller. Rangers, however, seemed set for a goal, and it was no surprise when Marshall ran up the middle and transferred to Fleming, who after getting the ball under control, scored a fine goal from ten yards’ range. The ball never left the ground and had Harkness beaten all the way. Time 21 minutes. This success spurred on Rangers, and 28 minutes had gone when McPhail, a limping man, scored Rangers’ second. The ball came over from Archibald and was pushed on to the scorer by Fleming. Then came a grand Hearts’ recovery. For the first time in the game, they attempted to play football and the policy paid. Battled took a swinging cross from Kerr, and bearing to the left, he crashed in the ball on the under side of the bar and into the net. Rangers were soon avenging this, and within 3 ½ minutes they had added a couple of goal. Fleming scored both of them, and in each case, Morton was the man who supplied the ammunition. The first was a peculiar affair. Kerr and Morton seemed to have an altercation what time the latter swung the ball to Fleming. Hearts defence hesitated and this gave the centre his chance to go through and place the ball past Harkness. The second was a direct cross from near the corner-flag, and Fleming met it with his foot and had little difficulty in finding a way past Harknes. That finished the first half scoring, and in the second period Hearts started off as if they knew nothing about the three-goal deficit. But they could not get in touch with Tom Hamilton, their vigour expending itself long before it got that length. Rangers on the other hand were dangerous whenever they got near Harkness, and Fleming and Archibald almost increased the total with headers that just went past. McPhail could by no means be described as a fit man, but he could always keep up with play and was unlucky to miss a chance when Fleming pushed a ball into the goalmouth for his benefit. What we have we hold. That seemed to be Rangers’ policy and as a result the play fell as flat as dishwater, and if it had not been for a grand shot of Fleming’s from neat the wing, we might have been pardoned for thinking that it was football at all! McPhail and Morton changed places owing to the former’s injury, and the wee winger in his new position had a grand try at goal – his shot skimmed over the cross-bar. Marshall hesitated when he had only to smash the ball into the net, and when he did try a shot, he sent the ball over the bar. While Buchanan was off injured, Fleming almost scored after he had raced Harkness for the ball, and a minute later the keeper saved a high ball from the right in his very best fashion. These were closing incidents in one of the poorest 45 minutes of football I have ever seen.
