B McPhail 20
J Smith 70, xx, xx
Match Information
Attendance: 11,040
Referee: J Baillie (Motherwell)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
At the very outset, let me say that Rangers won in the ned with a measure of ease. In the first half, queen of the South made a fight of it, and played with razor-edged keenness. Yet, in spite of quite long spells on the defensive, Rangers never really looked seriously in danger of defeat. Having written that, I now wish to work in quickly the chief ideas about the game with which I left Palmerston Park. They were :- (1) The wonderful enthusiasm and the keen sporting instinct of the Dumfries crowd. (2) I saw Smith play his best game at centre-forward for Rangers. On this showing, the big fellow with the dash can like the seller of a certain foodstuff, write his name SmITh. (3) That Marshall is nit an outside-right. (4) That Rangers must have their inside forwards placings read Marshall, Smith and McPhail. I shall deal with my last idea first, and incidentally it deals with the third. Marshall in the opening half occupied the outside-right position. He was most unhappy, and ever once gave the impression that he would fit in. Early in the second half, he changed places with Stevenson. It is no reflection on the Irishmans previous display when I say that, from the moment of the transposition, Rangers front line developed a power that had been hitherto lacking. Stevenson is a clever footballer, more skilful than I thought him till I saw him in the Irish team that whacked Scotland, but he has not the forceful touch of the Doc. Marshall, Smith and McPhail form the strongest inside trio in Scottish football and that by a long way. When Smith discards some of the touches which one might describe as harum-scarum, I declare that he will qualify to be one of the big personalities of the game in Scotland. And I do not mean in a physical sense. In this game he was a most forceful footballer with a pair of feet full of tricks, and each carrying a hot shot. On his shoulders was a head that revealed an intelligence that is far too uncommon among the tearaway, hope-for-the-best type of attack leader who prevails today. His positional play recalled to mid the tactics of Andy Wilson. And now back to the first idea. It did a soccer lovers heart a world of good to see the prevailing enthusiasm and the sportsmanship of the men and the womenfolk from the towns and villages of the South of Scotland. It brought back memories of some years ago to realise that thousands in the 11,400 crowd had travelled many miles to see a game of Association football. Let there be no doubt about it, Queen of the Souths promotion to the First Division has made a new and eager market for the game. I, for one, hope that the cause of the stir will carry on with the excellent work they have already accomplished. The Queen of the South eleven have already caused numerous surprises. They have beaten presumably better, and certainly more experienced, teams, but I have a feeling that they have done so more by reason of their possession of the do-or-die spirit and the eagerness to do well than by actual football ability. They appealed to me yesterday as a collection of hearties who try to make up their deficiency in skill by putting into their endeavour every ounce of physical possession. Bu that I do not mean they use their physical attributes unfairly. I mean that they are willing to go on having a go until they drop if need be. Let me go to the Ring for a smile to this game. They were like a game fighter who keeps on taking the punches of a highly scientific boxer in an effort to ger in one powerful blow. Very often the fighter succeeds in knocking out his boxer opponents, but more frequently he gets a pasting. The latter happened yesterday. Rangers, the boxer, kept popping out a punishing straight left and beat the other fellows attempts at countering with thudding rights. The first half of the game provided the crowd with plenty of thrills. The fighter kept tearing in, with the boxer on the defensive, but the boxer never looked like taking a count. In point of fact, the first knock-down was taken by the Palmerston Park lot after 22 minutes, when McPhail following a cross from Marshall, took full advantage of a complete miscalculation by Culbert to step in and fire a right foot ball from a few yards out past the helpless Fotheringham. In the matter of actual aggressiveness this was hard luck on the Queens, and it looked for a few minutes as if they were to lie down. But they came again and were doing well when the interval whistle sounded. They started off the second half keen and eager, but once Marshall and Stevenson changed placed that which previously had threatened definitely materialised, and Smith, ever there opt thereabouts, helped himself to three goals. But for Fotheringhams truly brilliant saving, Rangers would have had more. The front line, making easy headway by combined football with the half-backs, simply played shoot for goal. Some of Fotheringhams saved were marvellous. Rangers had no actual weaknesses, even if their experiment of playing Marshall on the wing was a failure. Ay half-back, Brown for a spell, was inclined to give Anderson too much space to work in, with the result that McDonald had frequently to indulge in safety tactics. Meiklejohn found the marking of his opponents a simple affair and walked through the game with his usual effectiveness. Gray and McDonald were the usual dependable pair, and Dawson was a grand goalkeeper. Queens have a good goalkeeper in Fotheringham. Willie is as safe as ever, Allan at centre-half, was the best of the three middlemen, and he had the sternest of tests in attempting to keep Smith in hand. The wing halfs, Russell and Ferguson, were faulty in their marking. Like the rest of the team, they were extremely eager to do well, but that very eagerness blinded them to the actual necessities. Forward, Cumming made a big impression, and always threatened to accomplish things. On two occasions, however, his threats should have been carried out. Bell was not the nippy fellow I saw against Celtic. He was poor in comparison.
