Gillick 4
Wilson 69
Match Information
Attendance: 14,000
Referee: T.F. Reilly (Port Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
A game which, over the piece, should have been comfortably won by the Rangers, came near seeing the end of their precious record of home immunity from reverse. They scored after 4 minutes through Gillick, who took a chance smartly with his left foot, had easily the best of the first half, resumed in storing style and then lost the place. How much the losing of the place was due to Rangers own sagging or to the Academicals sudden coming to life it is difficult to apportion, but Wilsons clever equaliser 24 minutes after the restart was the climax to a period of real Hamilton liveliness during which the forwards found a new game of quick accurate passing, and more direct penetration than ever they had shown before the interval. When Wilson got the ball from King and dribbled ahead to equalise, Rangers claimed that King had handled, but the referee did not share that view. Personally, I could not say. The equaliser made a great tussle of it. Rangers recovered and did everything but score against a defence that was often in desperate straits, but courageous and unyielding. The play swung once more in favour of the Ibrox team, but the Hamilton forwards never lost a chance to forge ahead, and Dawsons goal was never free of danger when these excursions were on. The crowd got plenty to keep them roaring, and when the end came the players knew they had been through something. With the exception of the spell in the second half referred to, Rangers played up to standard, but failed only in the final round-off. Dawson was sometimes indecisive, but he could scarcely have saved the goal unless by taking a chance in coming out. Gray and McDonald, like Wallce and Bulloch, were good backs. Gray played the second half with a chunk of sticking-plaster over his right eye. He got the injury close on the interval about the same time as Gillick was badly thrown. Both had to go off, and for a few minutes Rangers had only nine men. Shevlin did grandly even if a little lucky at times. At Half-back, the home team were superior most of the time, but I must give the Academicals trio credit for their share in the teams revival. They also made things difficult for the Ibrox forwards in the way of preventing them making position for a shot. Yet the Rangers attack was clever up to goal and should have been able to show more for it. When the Academicals front line jumped to it in the second half, McLaren and Harrison were prominent, and Park did his share by getting the ball well into the centre. During that time, too Wilson was a proposition for Simpson. We can do with many more such keen tussles as we saw in the second half
