Collins 30
McIlwraith <45
Match Information
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: W.F. Campbell (Dundee)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
I thought for a long time at Hamilton that the Rangers’ record was going to get another knock. In the end they just scraped through. The Light Blues played with more purpose and forcefulness on a heavy, slushy, waterlogged pitch that deadened the passing more than when I saw them forfeit two points at Ayr and a point to Dundee at Ibrox Park. The Rangers have not played a more heroic or a more desperate uphill game to gain the mastery than they did at Douglas Park. They were more like the Rangers who bore all before them in the League up to mid-December than they were in the matches played since. The form of the Hamilton players was a complete reversal of what one saw from them at Ibrox, when the side was weak in the wing positions at half-back, and only moderately served at centre half by young Hunt. The trio who represented the Academicals yesterday stiffened the side where formerly it was weak. Rankin was a big success as long as his stamina held out, but in the last half his clever young fellow had not the physical power to last the punishing ordeal against a wing pair like Cairns and Alan Morton. McNeil was a thorough success at centre-half. He had the worst part of the pitch to operate on, but he stuck it well, as did Thomson at left half, who was probably the best of a gritty line. The merit of the display of this section of the Hamilton team was strikingly enhanced on account of the big improvement in the Rangers’ attack. There was more life in the movement of Henderson and Archibald. The whole five forwards desperately strained every once of their strength to break down the defence of Sommerville, Hunter and Johnstone, and always there stood between them and their objective those untiring half-backs, who were men of lesser physique and power. Most of the time it was a desperate Rangers’ team striving to turn the scale, for Collins had scored for Hamilton cleverly by drawing out Robb and slipping the ball no more than into the empty goal, and McIlwraith had roused the enthusiasm of the local crowd by flashing a second goal past the vigilant Ibrox keeper five minutes later. For the next fourteen minutes before the teams retired for a welcome change of raiment, Hamilton let themselves all out. On ground that cup up worse and worse every minute, the struggle developed into a supreme test of endurance. The Rangers ha stormed the Hamilton lines probably more frequently than the Academicals had done towards theirs. Great shots by Meiklejohn, Cairns, Craig, Archibald and Muirhead had taken the wood or been brilliantly stopped by the daring of Sommerville. The plucky, dog-tired Academicals made a great fight of it, but the physical power of their opponents decided the issue. When the second half was fifteen minutes gone Cairns shook off Hunter’s challenge and scored. The struggle in the mud waxed keener and even more strenuous. Except on the wing, where Alan Morton got a firm foothold, the ball was literally booted through mud. A pass was always a hazard and kicking the ball any length well nigh impossible. At ten minutes to go the ball dropped among the surging players, and Craig equalised the score. Sommerville stuck to the ball, but the referee adjudged him to be over the lines. The winning goal, from the same player, five minutes from time, looked a simple affair. He got the ball in an open position from Archibald. There was a temporary slackness in the Hamilton defenders, who failed to realise that Craig was in play. There was a claim for offside. A near thing! The rain half-blinded the players, and the cold was intense as they battled for supremacy. Alan Morton and Archibald declared to me they never had a more bitter experience. Every Rangers’ player paid generous tribute to the grit and confidence of the Academicals, whose best forwards were McMillan, Collins and Moffat. McIlwraith played his best game at Douglas Park. Miller was top-heavy. The whole defence was wonderfully courageous, but Johnstone was lucky to escape being sent off the field. Compared with recent displays, the Rangers defence was convincing. McCandless was back to his old form. All three half-backs forced the game, and every forward paid his way. None could have grudged the Academicals a point.
