J Smith 10
Dr Marshall 30
Match Information
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: W Bell (Motherwell)
Matchday: Wednesday
Match Trivia
Three gift goals gave Rangers the right last night to style themselves League champions for still another year. Two doubtful decisions in the first half saw Smith and Marshall put the Ibrox team two up. In the last four minutes of the game, with the Bairns striving all they knew, Smith. left unmarked, broke away to put the issue beyond doubt. For all that, the Light Blues were the better team and knew how to take their chances. Where Falkirk failed was at inside forward, and had Marshall and Venters been wearing the Brockville colours the result might well have been the other way round. The doctor and the ex-Cowdenbeath man excelled in the Rangers front rank and fed their wing men judiciously, whereas Peat and Meechan were nearly always foraging for themselves. Yet the wee Falkirk fellow gave McDonald a hot time, and it was only a brilliant Hamilton save in the second half which prevented him equalising. The star man afield was Batchelor, who shifted to right back, not only subdued Nicholson, but found time to look after Smith. The Ibrox centre, apart from the incident near the close, was not given much rope, while Shankley saw to it that Main was kept in check. Craig played a more useful game at right half but the big noise in the Ibrox middle line was Simpson. He simple refused to let Bertram out of his sight and time and again he baulked the Brockville centre just as he was about to add the finishing touch to several of Meechans crosses. The game, while never productive of anything brilliant, was always interesting and exciting. Rangers took the lead after ten minutes when Smith headed home free-kick granted for a not very obvious infringement. In the thirty-second minute Nicholson from a suspiciously off-side position crossed for Marshall to add number two. Six minutes from the interval Anderson scored the best goal of the lot when he whacked the ball to the back of the net after Meechan had run half the length of the field. For half an hour in the second half Rangers were kept busy defending but the Bairns own eagerness was their undoing. Halfs and backs moved up the field and Smith, gathering a loose clearance raced away to restore the two goal lead. It was only after that goal, that Rangers played with something approaching confidence
