McEwen 3
Gordon pen 4, 30
Match Information
Attendance: 17,500
Referee: Tom Dougray (Nitshill)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
This was a battle-royal; upon that point I am sure every man among the 15,000 onlookers will bear me out. Where a diversity of opinion may come in is on the question of whether the Rangers deserved to win. Here a good deal depends upon the point of view. Certainly the Hearts caused Hempsey more trouble than the Rangers did Boyd, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the Ibrox men were lucky to win. No! It was Gordon rather than luck that carried the Rangers through. At the same time the Hearts are to be commiserated with on their failure to get at last one of the points as a reward for their hard game. They might have had both but the skill of Gordon. I feel almost inclined to speak of James as the Rangers’ best forward, but as that will hardly do it may suffice to say that he was more successful in attack than any of the men in front of him. He did all the scoring for his side. One of the goals was from a penalty-kick – but I can tell you best about that by setting out at the beginning of things. The game had a sensational opening. The Hearts were a goal ahead almost from the kick-off. It all happened so quickly that nobody knew very well how, but what we did see was that a fluky kick by Muir got the Ibrox defence into trouble, and that the end of the business was a ball from Graham driven hard into the net by Logan. Graham’s shot would have counted anyhow, so the Ibrox man need not take his failure to clear too sorely to heart. The joy of the Tynecastle folks was short-lived. Down swept the Rangers – Cairns was bustled off the ball rather unceremoniously by MacKenzie – and on went another goal as a tribute to Gordon’s proficiency in taking kick off the ‘spot’. Without questioning the correctness of Referee Dougray’s ruling, it may be said that the incident leading up to it hardly justified a goal, Cairns being dispossessed just over the penalty line as the result of a clumsy rather than an intentionally foul charge. We had the spectacle for the rest of the first half of two good-going teams fighting hard for a goal which neither of them could get. Hearts had a good breeze behind them this half, but it availed them little. The game went on fast and even lines –first one side attacking and then the other, with the half-backs always holding a fairly firm grip of the situation. The second half was less lively until after 15 minutes’ play Gordon popped up apparently out of nowhere and scored a second goal for the Rangers. After that the Hearts did the bulk of the aggressive work. It was often touch-and-go with the Ibrox lead, but no one in the Tynecastle attack could find a loophole in the defence of Hempsey and his colleagues. Except that Muir was uncertain in his kicking, the Rangers’ defence was sound as a bell. Manderson impressed with his effective tackling and kicking; Logan stood in the way of many a likely Hearts’ attack; and Gordon was the outstanding personality on the field. I though less of the forwards. Clever in the outfield – Bennett especially so – they got singularly little shooting done. Even Reid failed badly one time when a cross from Scott Duncan opened up the way for a goal. Two of the Hearts’ forwards were more outstanding than any of those on the Rangers’ side. Graham played a skilful game, and kept the ball going nicely from wing to wing, but only one man responded really well to his fine lead. This was Sinclair, who made capital running, sent across most accurate centres, and only failed in respect of his disinclination to try a shot on his own. In a strong half-back line Mercer was the star, and a very brilliant one, too; both in defence and in attack he rendered yeoman service to his side. MacKenzie and Wilson made a good pair of backs – the former steady and ‘heady’, the latter dashing and alert. Boyd did nothing amiss, but Hempsey was the goalkeeper who inspired the greater degree of confidence.
