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Match Details

Hearts

1-1

Rangers

League - Southern League
MatchDay 9
Tynecastle Park
Saturday
12 October, 1940

Hearts

Gibson
Anderson
McClure
Robson
Dykes
Miller
Dougan
Walker
Pattillo
Fitzgerald
Duncan

4

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Rangers

Jerry Dawson
Dougie Gray
Jock Shaw
Bobby Bolt
Willie Woodburn
Scot Symon
Willie Waddell
Jimmy Duncanson
Jimmy Smith
Alex Venters
Charlie Johnstone

Match Information

Goals

Dougan 15
Duncanson 75

Match Information

Manager: Bill Struth
Attendance: 15762
Referee: J Baillie (Motherwell)

Match Trivia

I saw Rangers’ bus leave Glasgow for Edinburgh. It must have passed 15 black cats on the way to Tynecastle. For here was another of these games where the referee was shoved into the dock, sentenced and suspended for life by the spectators – for passing up a penalty kick against Rangers. In the tenth minute, Tommy Walker was weaving his way through. His terrific momentum was such that it seemed he’d finish up with a facsimile of the back netting on his face. Then a foot interfered with him from behind. He crashed to the ground. “Penalty” bawled the crowd. Every eye turned to the referee. He shook his head and signalled ‘Play on’. “In the name of . . .” I heard a man behind me gasp “has a player tae be crowned wae a soda syphon before the referee’ll give a penalty against Rangers?” He had some justification. Remember this; Walker never goes down to fake a claim. The next few minutes were played to an obligate of boos that made same spectators look like adverts for lipstick yet had no apparent effect on the man responsible. Rangers had got a scare, however, and it was no surprise when Dougan smashed a rare angular ball into the net five minutes later. Hearts had much the better of this half, but the forwards were crudely objective rather than shrewdly effective. The second half started as if the Light Blues were all out for a kill. By this time, Hearts’ right winger, Dougan, was limping, and the home men were forced back. Bolt and Symon kept pushing the ball forward. But Rangers’ forwards had the same fault as Walker and company – invariably took the pass with their back to the goal and had to part with more speed than accuracy. Despite all Rangers’ pressure, Hearts had the nearest thing to a score. Dawson raced out to knuckle a corner kick from Dougan. The ball fell at Duncan’s feet while the keeper was marooned in Square Eight. A quick lob was sailing into the net when Tiger Shaw bobbed up as if catapulted through a stage door and headed clear just under the bar. I hope Shaw has duly apologised to Dougie Gray for stealing his ‘part’. Dawson was in much more bother than Gibson but was never asked to show the skill that made him Scotland’s keeper. The biggest man on the field was – the biggest man on the field in every way Lanky Jimmy Dykes loped about, clearing with foot and head as if killing time until the real game started. His immediate enemy, Jimmy (‘Thunder’) Smith turned right and left only to find that Dykes had guessed right, and Smith was left. With 15 minutes to go, Hearts were hanging on to their lead with their braces. Then Symon put the ball through to Johnstone, who touched it to Venters. The inside man’s whizz-bang bent the cross-bar and Duncanson shot the ball home from the rebound. From then on, it seemed Rangers would actually win. But they didn’t, and justice was served. On play Rangers deserved the draw. On actual rules of the game, they should have been a goal down. It was quite a thriller, with both goalkeepers seldom in real trouble, despite the shadows round their ‘beat’. All four backs were splendid. Nor was there a poot half-back. Hearts’ best forward was Dougan until his injury. Venters was the only Rangers success, and he was below par
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