J Smith 4
Unknown 60
Match Information
Attendance: 23,000
Referee: W.G. Holburn (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Hibs gave Rangers the promised hard fight at Easter Road yesterday, and to a certain extent sympathy must be with the opinion that the Greens were unlucky in losing. Actually, they made more chances than Rangers, and their failure to accept them can be accounted the chief reason for their defeat. Yet in whatever little football was played Rangers were the masters, if only for the elementary reason that they kept the ball more on the ground in attack. It was a game in which many excuses must be made. The 22,000 crowd got plenty to shout about, but the connoisseur was left as cold as the weather. A blustery cross-wind made ball work difficult in the air, yet more often than not the ball was given to the mercy of that capricious element. Quite appropriately it was the vehicle of all three goals scored. Both teams were without three recognised key players, and they were badly missed as such. With very rare exceptions, the move immediately ahead was the sole intention, and defenders were anxious to get rid of the ball anyhow, so long as the lines were cleared. Rangers might have willed it otherwise but were at the dictation of Hibs spoiling game. There was too much flurry for studios half-back play, and it was slap-dash nearly all the time, little balance, and either far-flung attack or crouching defence by both teams. Venters was an exception. He put the ball about with great discretion. He and Gillick invited the barging tackle by their quick ball control and got rather sickened by the opposing tactics. Main had the scientific measure of young McDonnell, but it was peck and bite for Smith with his two goals, both steered in with the head. The big centre was not otherwise prominent. Roberts is not yet a star, but he has two good feet he promises to make grand use of. He had cruel luck in being deprived of his first goal for Rangers by the crossbar, his header from Smiths semi-shot being worth a goal anytime. Rangers defence was not too sure, and far too much desperate covering-up was necessary. As a matter of fact, they were in no respect a championship side for obvious reasons of teamwork depletion. Still, they were not fortunate winners, and this may be asserted with confidence because Smith as well as Roberts struck the crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten. Rangers scored in the fourth minute. Watson failed to his head to Mains cross, but Smith was more sure of distance, and Hill was beaten with a downward header to the side of the goal. Hibs equalised when least expected, as their early attacking fire of the first half had died down, and Rangers appeared to have taken a secure winning grip. The equaliser was a most peculiar goal. Hibs Smith got a loose ball in his own lines when the Rangers attack exhausted itself seventeen minutes after the interval. He dribbled ahead unchallenged, looking about when where to place the ball. He close to put it ahead from Black, and Dawson ran out in anticipation. The goalie did not get to it properly, and the ball, hardly diverted, fell into the side of the goal. Dawson was injured, and was off for eight minutes, Hay taking the posts. From one of a series of free kicks, McDonald placed the ball for Smith to meet it with his head, giving Rangers the winner seven minutes from time. During Dawsons absence, Hibs looked to be on the winner way, and Rangers recovery was, therefore, dramatic. A fighting finish by Hibs coloured the opinion that they were unlucky losers, but the general run of the play does not confirm that
