English 17
Mills 36
Match Information
Attendance: 20,000
Referee: T Dougray (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Aberdeen were beaten at Ibrox by a stronger team, but their reputation did not suffer. They kept the result in suspense until well on in the second half. It was only when Rangers got the third goal that they could feel at all safe, even if the play after the interval went very much in their favour. I would say that Aberdeen deserved to be level at the interval when, instead the score was 2-1 against them. In the first fifteen minutes of the second half, Rangers were definitely superior. Smith and English each had the ball in the net, but the goals were rightly disallowed. Aberdeen were a hard-bitten company. They never yielded, and so as I have said, it was not until Rangers scored their third goal fifteen minutes from the end that they could see safety. As for the legitimate goals the first fell to Rangers after 16 minutes. Smith was racing ahead, and Cooper at his shoulder, thought the wise thing was to kick the ball ahead and concede a corner. As it happened this proved vital. Smith placed it nicely, and English headed into the net. The play speeded up after this, and there were escapes for both goals before Mills very smartly equalised with a lob over the heads of the defence when Hamilton was well out, having had to leave his charge vacant to punch away from McLean. Time 37 minutes. Now it looked like being a pull-devil-pull-baker tussle, but with only another minute gone, Rangers were ahead again. The Aberdeen defence allowed themselves to be drawn all to the one side to meet a movement by Smith and McPhail, and when Smith passed to Marshall he had only to walk in and beat the Pittodrie custodian but it took some doing for the keeper came out to narrow the angle. Until the interval it was thrust and thrust about, but Rangers took command after the turn, and after 32 minutes English rammed home a third goal from a down-headed service by McPhail after Archibald had swept the ball into the centre. Rangers forwards had the driving power which Aberdeen lacked, although the latter were often clever individually and in combination. McPhail injured in the first minute he seemed to get some mud in his eye was not so assertive as usual, but English and Marshall were full of life, and Archibald and Smith had the drive. Mills was a clever leader-out and McLean showed many of his old neat touches, but like his colleagues, did not get the shot away quickly enough. Warnock and Beattie made some smart moves but were erratic.
