McNee 5
Keddie 19
A Venters 60
Match Information
Attendance: 17,500
Referee: M.C. Dale (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The game of the season. It was glory in the glaur for both teams, at the finish the 17,000 crowd were as breathless with excitement as the players must have been leg-weary with the strenuousness of it all. Put Rangers two goals down at half-time, deprive them of a player, and see how wonderfully they can fight back. I dont think I have ever seen a Light Blue team that hammered their way to things as yesterdays lot did, after losing McPhail as a man of use. Four minutes after the restart he drove a powerful shot that went narrowly past albeit Moran seemed to have the ball covered and in the doing if it pulled a muscle. He retired to the pavilion and resumed at outside-right, where he was of little use. It must have been agony for him at times to kick the ball. Possibly if he had not met with the damage that came his way Rangers would at least have drawn. But that is a matter for conjecture. Let us look at things as we saw them. Time and again in the second half Rangers surged down on the Hamilton rear lines, and it appeared impossible that Morgan and the men immediately in front of him could survive. But that they did and give all credit to a fighting defence that wholeheartedly went into the fray. At the same time, however, Rangers missed chances. They appeared to be possessed with the desire to walk the ball over the goal-line, an infliction that one seldom see attack an Ibrox team. It is because of this that I say if McPhail had been fit the result might have been different. The big fellow, assuredly, would have had a pop at goal from distance from which Kinnear, Venters, Thornton and Waddell preferred to make a pass to a colleague. Only four minutes of the game had gone when Hamilton opened the scoring. Wilson beat Simpson to it and looked to be through, but the centre was a bit slow, and the ball went for a corner. McNee took the award and sent over a beauty. Dawson rose to it to punch clear. Whether the ball skidded off his knuckles ended in the ball landing in the net. Hamilton were kicking downhill into a veritable sea of mud, and every time they got going, they looked dangerous, swinging the ball about in a way that was in distinct contrast to the close passing of the Rangers forward line. In the nineteenth minute, one of those long punts downfield was met by Wilsons head, and he placed it to the cranium of Keddie, who headed the leather well out of Dawsons reach. What was wrong with Rangers defence? They stood watching things as if they were paralysed. Maybe they thought Wilson or Keddie, or both, was offside. In that they were mistaken. After half an hour, following a free kick, Thomson, inside the eighteen yards line, nudged McPhail with his elbow when the inside man looked good to score. Waddell took the penalty kick and made a mess of it. The ball slithered towards Morgan, who seemed to divine the wingers intention of placing it inside the keepers left-hand post. Morgan dived, but so slow did the ball travel that it hit the goalkeeper on the legs, and he cleared. Theyll never score I heard a Hamilton man shout excitedly. They did in the second half. The first portion had seen the play surprisingly fast. In the second the speed of it was amazing. With McPhail at outside-right and Waddell at inside, Rangers concentrated on the left-wing and here Symon played his best game since arriving at Ibrox. In fifteen minutes, the Fifer scored. There was a bit of a scramble at Morgans left-hand post and the ball sprung to Venters, who turned it into the net. There were strong protests, it being alleged that Venters had elbowed the ball home. I thought he did. Every player in this game should be marked down as a hero if only for their physical effort. Both goalkeepers were grand, although Dawson must accept the blame for the loss of the first goal. Shaw was the best back of the four, and Thomson, Low and Scott take the half-back honours. Among the forwards Venters was the outstanding personality. He was ever in the picture. The Referee Did quite well. A pity about the Venters counter. Waddell missed a 30th minute penalty
