Connell 35
Match Information
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: P Craigmyle (Aberdeen)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
There was no doubt which was the better team at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock had to go through a bad half-hour at the start of the game. During that period, Rangers with the win in their favour, had the major share of the play, but they could not translate that superiority into terms of goals. The game turned definitely in favour of Kilmarnock before the interval. They did not improve on the goal that Connell got ten minutes from half-time., but they were masters of the situation. Not long before he scored, Connell missed a chance by stopping the ball instead of taking it in his stride. But that failure taught him and his mates a lesson, for it showed up a weak spot in the Rangers defence. And the right winger was plied with the ball until it came once to him in the right way and at the right place. He ran past Buchanan and shot from close in, the ball striking Hamiltons leg and rebounding to the corner of the net. It was a game full of thrilling incidents from start to finish. Narrow escapes at each end and good work by both goalkeepers kept up the excitement. Clemie was more spectacular, but no safer than Hamilton. The real feature of the game, however, was the grip the Kilmarnock half-backs took after they were a goal ahead. They had been a cut ahead of the Ibrox trio before that, but then they dominated the game. Hugh Morton was in especially determined mood. From the outset he saw to it that his namesake Alan got not the slightest rope. The Rangers left wing was blanketed. Tom Smith did ditto to his namesake. The young Ibrox leader was up against a defender who played with his head all the time and left nothing to chance. McEwan was his usual clever self, strong in attack as in defence. Nibloe and Robertson were nothing above the ordinary. They did not need to be behind half-backs of such power. The form of the Kilmarnock forwards must have been an agreeable surprise to the home crowd, especially the work of youngsters Maxwell and Duncan. The three older hands all did well, but Duncan had some touches as clever as anything that was done during the afternoon, and he sent across the wide pass that gave Connell his scoring chance. Maxwell was always a worrier, and with a little luck would have got among the goals. The Rangers forwards never rose to any great heights. Marshall was the hardest worker and made the most promising efforts to open up a way through the defence. The others seemed to have no great desire to try conclusions with those doughty defenders. Archibald was unlucky to find the post instead of the net with a grand narrow-angle drive in the first half. Meiklejohn and craig strove hard enough, but their best work was done in defence. Brown was not nearly sharp enough in the tackle and was often left helpless and unhelpful in a passing movement. Gray was not comfortable, especially in the second half, against the nippy Kilmarnock left wing, and Buchanan had a heavy afternoons work. His kicking against the wind was badly controlled. Rangers defeat can be ascribed in great part to the failure of their forwards to make use of obvious chances when things were running their way. Certainly, Archibalds shot deserved a better fate, and Clemie was lucky to stop one of Marshalls by swinging his hand back after jumping into wrong position. But Smith had several openings on which he might have improved. Once, with the way to goal open, he shot from too long range, and at another time a miskick by Robertson caught him unprepared. There was a miss or two on the Kilmarnock side. Not long after the second half started, Aitken drove over the bar a perfect pass from Maxwell which left him an open goal. The homesters might have made more of their pressure after this but they seemed anxious to hang on to their lead rather than to increase it
