A Venters 70
Match Information
Attendance: 95,000
Referee: M.C. Hutton (Glasgow)
Matchday: Friday
Match Trivia
Rangers and Celtic in their time have served up some great games. Yesterdays affair will not be numbered among them. It was, certainly, plentifully endowed with physical effort, but of skilful football there was precious little. It was what one might describe as a spoilers game. Neither attack showed up in an impressive manner, but of the two front lines Rangers lot was the better, and there can be no denying that on the run of play the Light Blues deserved their victory. Territorially, the Ibrox fellows were in the ascendency all through, and the truth of this will be understood when I say that from fifteen minutes after the start until five minutes following the commencement of the second half McGrory hardly got a kick of the ball. There was a complete lack of combination among the Celtic forwards. They just could not get the better of the Rangers tackling, while in addition, they seemed to find it the most difficult thing in the world to make a proper pass. There was a blustery wind blowing, and the pitch was treacherously greasy, but nevertheless, these circumstances do not altogether account for the poverty of football science. It seemed to me that nerves had a great deal to do with things, and it was only occasionally that a forward had the presence of mind to hold the ball, the general desire being to get rid of it at the earliest possible moment. And it can be readily understood what happened. The ball was kicked either short or wide of the intended mark, and a defender had the simplest of tasks to step in, intercept and clear. I use the word clear advisedly, for with the exception of George Brown, none of the half-backs had much idea, or rather did not show much idea, of constructive play. I place them in the same category as the forwards in that they were too eager to get rid of the leather. To me the outstanding personality of the game was McDonald. The Irishman has been criticised of late, especially on the allegation that he was slow. He didnt require speed in this contest. His positioning was of the topmost class, and he was always there to step in and prevent Delaney making contact. On the few occasions when he did not anticipate a move to bring the right-winger into the scheme of things, his tackling was sound, and he didnt require to slide. It was upright stuff all the time, good to watch, and effective in its manner. On the other side of the field Murphy was next door to useless against Gray, and unless my memory plats me false the Celtic winger only made one decent cross in the second half, and it was clutched by Dawson with McGrory, unusual for him, looking on and making no attempt to get there. Neither Buchan nor Crum seemed able to find the touch of things, and they were always struggling. In contrast to them the Rangers inside men, especially McPhail, could make substantial headway on their own, and the strength of Robert was made manifest in the later stages when he shook off a tackling opponent to carry the ball forward solo. Venters was very slick, o occasion, at slipping the ball to Kinnear who tried to be enterprising but was not always successful. He like Main on the other touchline, realised to the full what it was like to play in a defenders game. Hogg and Morrison were good backs, but like Gray they didnt come up to the standard of McDonald. Both goalkeepers did all that was asked of them, and that wasnt much, thanks to the poorness of the two attacks, the lack of forward thrust. The goal that won the game was scored in the twenty-first minute of the second half. Main sent in a well placed corner kick. It dropped dead in the centre of the goal, about ten yards from Kennaway. Smith got his cranium to it, headed the ball behind him. Venters was lying clear of opposition when the ball reached grass, and stepping forward with it a couple of yards he let go one that no keeper could have saved unless he was in the direct line of fire, and Kennaway certainly was not. The score was greeted with the usual scenes that mark a goal in a Rangers-Celtic game. The scorer danced with delight as his mated rushed forward to thump his back and shake his hands, while one end of the terracing stood dumb, as though stricken with paralysis what time the opposite end went frantic with joy. It was only after the score that Celtic made an impression as a combined force in attack, but Simpson and his co-defenders were giving nothing away, and every effort to equalise was blocked, and that without too much difficultly. One word more. It was a cleanly contested game, and there was little if any going after the man to the neglect of the ball. The pity was that the attack too often did not show that they knew what to do with the spere when it was in their possession.
