McKillop 12
J Smith 27, 33
McGillivray 49
B McPhail 75
Match Information
Attendance: 22,000
Referee: W Webb (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Motherwell were whipped. But Rangers carried the scars at the finish. Cheyne was limping on one wing all the second half, and Smith, off for twenty minutes, came back to play on the other touchline. But the game was won and lost before that. Indeed, it was won in the very early minutes. Before even the first goal arrived in 13 minutes. It was won when Smith and Blair challenged each other. Smith won then and kept on winning. Johnny Blair has played many a noble game against the thundering Ibrox leader. Yesterday he was just running around. Smith was magnificent. He slit opened the strait-jacket Blair tried to sling on him. Claimed the freedom of the park and didnt even let the Motherwell pivot reply to one of toasts. McKillop scored the opening goal but it was actually Smiths although the big fellow didnt touch the ball. A hearty swing across goal by the right-half was allowed to enter the net at the far side, because the entire defence appeared to be wondering what Smith was going to do. Smith did nothing actually and Rangers were a goal up. A pity this, because Motherwell had started brightly enough. Indeed, but for the fact that Rangers have the best goalkeeper I have ever seen, they, and not Rangers, might have opened the scoring. Stevenson trickled through and crossed a head-high ball. Bremner raced in and headed deliberately for the far side of the goal. It was a clever header and would have whacked 99 keepers out of a hundred. But this Dawson fellow isnt human. A flying figure. Outstretched fingers. And the ball was squeezed round the post. Bremner couldnt have looked more dismayed had a spectator smacked him across the face with a wet haddie. The Motherwell forwards were failing because they all patrolled the accustomed beats. The five forwards invariably were to be found as at the kick-off. This made it a lot easier for the Ibrox defenders to nail em down. Smith and company knew no boundaries. Where there was a hole in the field, one of them filled it. And sure, as eggs, a colleague spotted it and sent the ball there. Thats how the second count came. McPhail thumped a big header out to the left where Smith had no right to be, according to the rule book. But according to the score-book, he couldnt have been in a better place. From an astonishingly acute angle, he squeezed the ball past McArthur, and the Rangers fans on the terracing cracked up a hearty We Will follow. That happened after 27 minutes. Five minutes more and Smith again scored. This time from an almost impossible angle. Even Motherwell people, fed on the Ferrier bye-line swingers, were struck all of a heap. Away out on the right, near the bye-line, the light blue leader got clear after a Motherwell offside frame-up that failed. He whipped it, as we though, across goal. Whether he put check side on it or not, the fact remains the ball whistled past McArthur and stretched the inside of the side curtains. To say McArthur was flabbergasted is as mild as a fond mothers chastisement. The game was punctured. In three places. Motherwell didnt appear to have a big enough kit to mend em all. Mind you, in some ways, the home fellows were attractive. McKenzie was clever. Ellis and Grant performed bravely. Stewart and Ogilvie were spoiling for fun. But the system was terribly out-of-date in the game of Ibrox twists and switches. Now, if Motherwell had had a McPhail . . . The master-mind afield. Home fans craned forward when he wasnt on the ball. When he collected it, they slumped back, hoping for the best and dreading the worst! Ive said it before, and this game was further confirmation in Smith and McPhail, the Light Blues have Enemies Nos 1, and 2 so far as nay opposing defence is concerned. These two powerful fellows can hatch more plots, and carry em out, than many whole forward lines. When making an emergency blind pass, McPhail can smell out his comrade with the accuracy of a cat finding the fish in a bowl of hash. The second-half started in a blaze of uncertainty. Cheyne had strained himself just before the interval and went to the wing. Venters went left-back and Kinnear inside-left. In the third minute, a most amazing accident to Smith shattered the Ibrox team formation. The centre went headlong at a ball near the ground and took Ben Elliss foot full in the face. An accident, of course. Everyone wondered what possessed Smith to risk himself. He was assisted off the field with blood streaming down his face. This seemed a distinct chance for Motherwell, playing as they were against nine fit men. Things looked a lot brighter when Ogilvie, who had changed places with Bremner, tore upfield and outstripped the Ibrox defence to whack a great ball across goal. Dawson miraculously cut it out, but McGillivray, with a first-timer, smacked it home. Alas, that was to be the last concession by the Rangers defence. In 20 minutes, Smith returned to play on the right wing. And in a couple of minutes, he raced downfield and crossed. The ball came out to McPhail, who scored with a shot the keeper should have seen all the way. It was all over. Motherwell were well and truly whipped. I must say it was a day when nothing seemed to come off for them. At the same time, the game revealed so little resource and inspiration in their ranks the results was due punishment. Motherwell need a class inside-forward. And Im afraid they will have to tighten up the mid-line, too. Simpson had a great day for Rangers, despite the fact that Stewart was one of the few successes of the Motherwell side. The Rangers pivot isnt classy but it takes a gev classy player to get round him! The defence was OK. McKillop gallops on to success. Thornton I was seeing for the first time. The boy has a lot to learn and looks as if hell enjoy his apprenticeship. McPhail and Smith were the big men of the match in every way. When these two are in form, Rangers seem just to go plumb daft!
