Match ended 0-0
Match Information
Attendance: 29,448
Referee: M.C. Hutton (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The laws governing out Charity Cup competition must be altered immediately. Here was a real rollicking old-fashioned cup final, with both sides giving all they had. With desperation creeping into things as the teams went out for a decisive kill. Any side liable to score. The crowd at fever pitch. Then the full-time whistle, and the ref pointing to the pavilion indicating Rangers had won all corners. Corners! Imagine it. Now I ask you even the Rangers fans what side wants to win a cup on corners? How we would have relished an extra half-hour of this stiff. Even the players. Is sure, would have preferred it that way. But no! Rules are rules. So, this, probably the best charity final for years, was doomed to finish on a most unsatisfactory note. Most unsatisfactory, too, when I tell you Third had about three-fifths of the game, and that their all-round team work was also just a cut above Rangers. Frankly, Third amazed me. They tell me manger McMillan is out to emulate Mr McCartney in recruiting young. Well, as far as I saw, Cathkin is off to a good start as rivals to the Easter Road Pram Parade. This young Sinclair boy for instance. Before his puff gave out he was most natural football afield. Swooping through with the ball as effortless as a gull. A definite answer to the doubting Thomases who talk of our football decadence. Keep your eye on him. But then, this game was fill of bright things. Dewars dribbles were highlights. His first run up saw him smack the face of the bar with Jenkins nowhere. Next incident of not was Mason smashing a glorious hook shot just past the Ibrox keepers right-hand post. And Third, mark you, were playing against a strong wind. Notice the goalmouth incidents were all at Rangers end? Ill tell you why. The Ibrox wing-halves simply could not judge their forcing passes in this following wind. Instead of landing in the goalmouth they invariably only succeeded in sending the battery of cameramen scurrying. All this time Thornton was merely running up and down. Never has he chased a more elusive ball. For every pass he got the ball-boys got four. Blair and Sinclair were the very opposite. They could afford to hit their passes. And naturally they got far more accuracy into them. Just on the interval we had a touch of Dewarism ay its best. Taking the ball about midfield, he beat man after man until he found himself about six yards from goal. A shot looked the obvious thing, but you know Neillys motto Club First. So, he chose the square pass into the middle. Instead of a colleague it found Woodburn. The whole movement went for nothing. I forecast an improved Rangers against the wind. My prophecy came true. As a team they became 100 per cent better. Yet they simply could not break through this stonewall Third defence. Oh, they did once, but a quick-eyed referee rightly annulled the score. A corner came over from Waddell. McPhail rose to it and headed through. He danced with glee but unfortunately, he had not noticed Venters making it easy for him by pushing McCulloch as the back was preparing to jump. Third weathered this storm and fought back into the attack. So much so, in fact, that here was McCulloch actually making Jenkins jump to one which just gazed the crossbar. Third will win this game yet. I thought as I saw Jenkins time and again take Rangers out of tight corners. And so, Third might have fared better if their extreme left wing had been on a par with the right. Miller, Dewar and Mason would draw the defence, and poke inviting balls out to the left. Time and again they cast their bread on Watters, but not once did it come back buttered. Pity, too for Rangers were not so strong on the right as they were on the left. McKillop was certainly trying his best, but he has not got the Dougie Gray ring about him. Of course, hell find it difficult to shine when standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Shaw. Heres a player who will be kicking his heels now in idleness when should be kicking a ball up and down Canada and the States. And no greater praise can I give McCulloch than say he was in the same street as Shaw. Indeed, there was not much in it, as far as the defences were concerned. The goalkeeping, too on both sides was of an exceptionally high standard, but in that all-important department of wing-half, Third definitely had it. I have already mentioned Sinclair. Carefully nursed hell find you dont need the technique of a cat burglar to climb the football heights. Blair too was splendid. Definitely his number one object was to shadow Venters. In this he was highly successful. Also, he found time to go up occasionally and force things in attack. The centre-halfs both satisfied themselves with the defensive game. The score points to the way each accomplished his task. Hart and Mason formed the most enterprising wing afield. I was seeing Milelr for the first time. I liked him. He had a Gallacher touch in many of his moves. Dewar, we saw in a new light. For instance, when rangers were definitely on top, Dewar came right back to help prepare the parlour for the Ibrox flies. Venters was Rangers most dangerous raider but was too closely guarded. Sufficient too I saw of McPhail to appreciate that although the speed is toned down a bit the maestro touch is still there. His old touch of slinging long balls out to the opposite wing was ever-present. Unfortunately, Kinnear did not respond. Once or twice, I saw Bob scratch his head as he looked over to the left. But oh, how I would have loved to see them all go at it tooth and nail in a deciding half-hour. The stage certainly had the atmosphere for a death or glory affair.
