Browning
O'Kane
Match Information
Attendance: 60,000
Referee: A Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
At Parkhead, where the Rangers, after holding out for 74 minutes, collapsed before the most methodical Celts almost as completely as the ball, which earlier in the match came to grief on an iron spike, there was not a plethora of what you and I have hears do often described as the finer points of the game. Nor did I expect there would be. Knock-out football is of such rare occurrence nowadays that when it does come along the players are even more excited than they used to be. As a consequence the play suffers, and a possible extra time a counting corner-kicks doesn’t help matters. It was so for the greater part of the afternoon in this keenly fought-out Glasgow Cup semi-final tie at Celtic Park. Flashes of individual forward brilliancy we were certainly regaled with by either side, I readily grant you, but until McMenemy got the Celts’ forwards settled to something like their true game when the match had run barely an hour; it was practically a case of checkmate all the time. Destruction, not construction, seemed to be the watchword. One man kept his eye glued to another, and sprung at him as a cat would at a mouse. In the circumstances, can you wonder as it that the quality of the play suffered, that fouls were far too frequent, and that tempers got ruffled occasionally? We had ‘scraps’ even, which was surely very bad form. Although Scott Duncan let a good scoring chance slip in the first half – he slashed the ball past an upright instead of going on and beating Shaw – it was early evident to me that Celtic were the better balanced and more confident side. And what is more, the Rangers themselves seemed to know it. The Ibrox backs played grandly then; Logan, Riddell and McKenna upset the hurried calculations of the Parkhead vanguard, who were given little time for elaboration; but further forward the ‘Light Blues’ were an extremely moderate company. Perhaps, though, it wasn’t altogether their own fault. They were not supported as they ought, for the simple reason that their over-wrought intermediate men were glad to get rid of the ball without thinking of or attempting to put it in a comrade’s pocket. On the other hand, the Celts were often dangerous, and more particularly on the right, where Gallagher and McAtee were very lively. A few of the outside man’s express deliveries were more than a trifle wild; still, before the interval, sufficient came across the goal to have won the match twice over. Browning gathered one or two of these very badly. Early in the second half McMenemy got his men in hand, and although Philip arrived too late to clinch a characteristic effort of Cairn’s, after Gallagher had been almost certain goal at the other end, I felt that the Rangers’ doom was sealed. The Celts’ master tactician realised that the right was the right place to play the ball. McAtee and Gallagher were accordingly plied with it; McKenna wavered, and before we were midway through the half Logan and Riddell also found that they couldn’t get rid of the ball with the freedom thay did in the earlier stages. Celtic were surely wearing down the opposition; but still nothing doing. They held the advantage in corners, but, as I have already indicated, only sixteen minutes remained for play when the opening goal came along. It was cleverly taken by Browning, who suspiciously offside , seemed to get in and get under Manderson ere letting go his shot, which gave Lock not the ghost of a chance. Six or seven minutes later big boy O’Kane bored his way through the now cracked-up Ibrox defence, to roll the second one home; and just as we were preparing to follow suit, Peter Johnstone got his head to a lovely cross of McAtee’s. Lock, I think, might have reached the ball before the soldier; still, McAtee’s centre deserved a point. The Celtic right-winger enjoyed one of his brightest days, and shared the honours forward with Gallagher and McMenemy. The Celts, I hold, should have been awarded a penalty kick when ‘Patsy’ was robbed of that goal to which I have already alluded. McMenemy’s best work was done in the second half; O’Kane, big and strong, was always there or thereabout, but for once in a while Browning did not impress me. Young was more noticeable than either of his Soldier comrades, Johnstone and McMaster; crafty McNair was easily the safer back; and Shaw’s clean sheet speaks for itself. Lock was much the busier custodian, however, and Blair vied with McNair for the full back laurels. Manderson kicked splendidly, and fir round about an hour Logan and McKenna and Riddell were destruction itself, one might say – spoilers of the first order. Forward, Duncan missed Bell; still, with his ability and the balls he did get1 the right-winger should have done better. Cairns, eager to a degree, as usual, impaired his effectiveness by roaming too much; and Archibald and Philip did little of note. I liked Lawson, who came through the ordeal with much credit. This Shettleston boy, who centres a nice ball promises well
