J Smith 43
B McPhail 57
Match Information
Attendance: 22,000
Referee: J Thomson (Hamilton)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Falkirk took honour in defeat, and I dont suppose Rangers will claim much glory. The scales were loaded against any chance the Bairns had when they lost their goalkeeper through injury after 15 minutes play. That they kept Rangers out until two minutes from half-time was eloquent of a magnificent fighting spirit. Indeed, at times it looked as if Rangers were the short-handed team. Brown had to do prodigies in covering up, and it was quite common to see McPhail, Venters and even Kinnear cleaning up things in their own penalty area. As a matter of fact, Rangers were a bit lucky to lead at half-time, though quite probably Robertsons injury affected their play as well as Falkirks. It certainly took the expected tension out of the game. Much as one could admire Falkirks pluck. Rangers gave the impression of playing within themselves. This was emphasised in the second half, when Rangers could afford to indulge in some fancy stuff, and shots by Smith and Venters, which crashed against the bar, might have augmented their score. These were more worthy efforts than the actual goals, which at the best were scurvy affairs, and might have been prevented by a regular goalkeeper. In the first instance, two minutes from half-time. Smith was allowed to run in at his leisure under a hanging ball and head it through. Falkirk claimed off-side, because there was no one between Smith and the deputy goalkeeper, Batchelor. But that was the positional fault of the defence, who collectively took too much for granted. Smith was onside, in my opinion, when he started to run. The second goal, twelve minutes after the interval, was scored with an almost despising gesture by McPhail. Shouldering off Corrance, he meandered on and trintled the ball just inside the post, as much as to say. Theres no goalkeeper, anyway. Nevertheless, it was a manoeuvre that might have outwitted the best. Keen interest, already sagging was knocked stone cold by Rangers second goal, as it killed Falkirks hopes of stealing an equaliser, which the watchful Benson had nearly done on two occasions. Sixteen minutes from time, the record crowd of over 20,000 had their hopes of a thriller revived when the same Benson was threading his way through. Twice he was interfered with, the second time so palpably that the referee had no option to awarding a penalty kick. Dawson made a daft mess of this by blinding the ball past, but Im blaming those who appointed him to take the kick, with so many more experienced colleagues around. Rangers had the football qualifications as winners but were not impressive as a team. The scant use made of Main and Venters discounted Falkirks depletion, as it failed to open the game sufficiently to exploit this unfortunate numeric weakness of Falkirk. There can be no question that Robertsons injury was an accident. He took one risk too many, and Hamill should have held off Main, whose mission was solely the ball. It may be cruel to indict a player pitchforked in at the last minute, and out of position at that, but Falkirk folks wont readily forget the lapses of Keyes at goal in the first half. He certainly had distinct chances of covering himself and his team with glory, but procrastination beat him. Yet Falkirk quite definitely asserted they were First League class in a paying centre, and that should be the lasting memory of the game. Dawson (Falkirk) missed a 75th minute penalty
