W Reid 10, <45
Gettins pen >45
Match Information
Attendance: 6,000
Referee: J Weir (Airdrie)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Dumbarton may not have come out of the game with Rangers at Boghead so well as some of their friends had hoped, yet I don’t see that they had much to grumble at. Everything was in favour odf Rangers – they took the field a combination, and the conditions were such as to give them every scope for the free play of their cleverness in low-passing football. Dumbarton had a change or changes in every department except goal. I consider they did very well to hold Rangers to within a couple of goals. Some other teams of greater pretensions than Dumbarton will be pleased if they do the same. My impression is that Dumbarton’s team will weld together all right after a bit of play. It is curious that they should have erred in this game on the side of close passing. Some of it was pretty well done, but not well enough to reduce a defence of the quality of Rangers. The Light Blues nixed their game admirably. They frequently puzzled the home defence simply by discarding the close game for some wide, swinging passes, which were extremely disconcerting. There were ten minutes of fast, interesting play before a swift by Duncan and then a perfect centre enabled Reid to open the scoring, despite the vigilance of Hamilton in goal, who before and after this was a regular hero in defence. A brisk response by Dumbarton sae O’Neill, the young centre from Burnbank, left with a glorious chance, but a little excitement probably caused him to shoot wide. Before an another such opportunity came to the home team, Reid ran away with a pass from Paterson, and when both Gunn and Hamilton were on the point of giving him serious challenge, he ‘cutely side-tapped the ball into the net. Some thought Reid offside, but I thought not. If O’Neill was watching Reid he would observe how it ought to be done. It is very simple. Leading by 2-0 at the interval, Rangers were never in danger in the second half. Although Gettins early converted a penalty given for Manderson handling when O’Neill was going in, a third goal quickly fell to the Ibrox team, Cunningham heading into the net beyond Hamilton’s reach following a corner. Perhaps Dumbarton saw certain defeat in store at that point, and little wonder, as the Rangers’ defence would give nothing away, and the forwards – also Gordon, who rattled the bar – persisted in trying for bull’s eyes. Hamilton, in goal, was Dumbarton’s outstanding man. Lock’s daring was enjoyable by comparison. Manderson and Muir were, as you would expect, a steadier and more resourceful pair of backs than McGrory and Gunn, who, nevertheless, stuck gamely to a commission that was not easy. The difference in the strength of the half-backs was further reflected in the play of the forwards. Chalmers, from Croy Celtic, had a man’s job holding Reid, who had Cunningham and Cairns handing out nice passes to hi,, making it all the harder for Chalmers. Cunningham was as big a Tartar as Peter McFie has caught for a long time. Trying to get hold of him was like trying to catch smoke. Reid was on the scent all the time, and Duncan, Cairns and Paterson served up some taking football. As I say, more wide, swinging passing would have better paid the Dumbarton forwards. They did well in parts, but suffered latterly by an injury to Ritchie. O’Neill looks a likely centre, and another game or so should bring the others right into their stride. This lad has dash
