W Reid <45
A Cunningham >45
A Cunningham 85
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: T Dougray (Nitshill)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
We ought to judge Queen’s Park’s matches from unusual standards. All their results are good results when you think of their circumstances. It is wonderful to see them ‘staving the course’ as they have stayed it. Anyone who thinks the matter out will realise that Queen’s Park are doing good work for amateur football in keeping their log rolling. With me, the fact that they are usually the losing side carries no particular weight. I should like to have a look at some of the swagger teams after they had lost the bigger portion of their regular contingent. Queen’s Park are alive, and that’s the main thing. I have nothing but sympathy for the man who cannot look on a Queen’s Park match and feel that there is something left from the birthday of the game in Scotland that would make us a little poorer if we lost it. They and Rangers are historic rivals. Their engagements together are always touched with the old flavour of Keenness. So it was at Hampden, even if Rangers were first and last the team on the track of the points. There was nothing in the first half to give the play distinction, but after change of ends the Rangers’ forwards snapped their pincers on the amateurs’ defence. The winners won easily enough, and yet, as I say, Queen’s Park carried themselves well- considering. For a biggish portion of the first half, the Rangers game was through the centre. Reid was to be given shooting practice. He was supported from all quarters, but what with the greasy ball being difficult to hold, and Leslie the QP centre-half – who was Haydock’s deputy – frequently getting in the way, the goal was, like Prince Charlie, ‘Lang o’ comin’,’ In the meantime, the Amateur forwards kept thing lively with occasional sallies. It was in these that the lack of steadiness among the forwards cost the team the usual heavy price. Always when the scoring chance was brought about there was apparent a lack of decision, due to almost seemed, to the player with the ball frightening himself by thinking of the consequences of failure. A little devil-may-care, here-goes-and-good-luck-to-it spirit would have looked better, and probably would have paid better. But, after all, we can’t put old heads on young shoulders. Cunningham had been keen on the scent of a goal, and he nearly had one when a vicious shot struck a defender on the head. But if Cunningham was not to score this half, it was left to him to put Reid through to score ten minutes from the interval. Reid’s shot hit the post, and would have been saved like the rest by Gordon Kerr but for the quick follow-up by the Rangers’ centre, who got the rebound, and made no mistake at the second attempt. That was the only goal of the first half. It was only in the second half that Rangers let themselves loose. They got a fright in the first minute when McIntosh went in clear of Craig and Muir, only to be caught up by Gordon. Then they put their heads down. Cunningham was the mainspring of the attack. He dribbled, dodged and passed to his heart’s content. Nothing could stop him, for if apparently boxed up by opponents, he would turn in the space of a saucer, and wriggle away clear either to shoot, or give partner Duncan a pass ‘made to order.’ It always looked like Cunningham being a scorer, and so it was. Thirteen minutes had gone when the whole of the forwards took a share in a puzzling attack. Paterson was left to centre, and Cunningham, meeting the ball on the fall, urged it into the net with his right shin. Not satisfied, Cunningham next went off on a dribble by himself, and beating the outfield defence, he shot a ball that was well out of Gordon Kerr’s reach, but hit the far post. The Ranger had no luck with his shots. By this time both of the Rangers’ wings were moving sweetly, but Cunningham’s all-ground cleverness made the right wing the more arresting. Paterson accomplished some graceful running on the left. He was given many dainty passes by Bowie, just as, on the other side of the field, Gordon kept up a telling co-partnery with Cunningham. In fact things were going so well for Rangers that the defence though they could do anything without troubling much about it, and were nearly caught napping by McIntosh, who profited by their fiddling, and went clear through for a shot that went wide. Morton, who was generally able to worry Craig in a straight tussle, made a capital run and shot, which Hempsey saved. That was almost the last of Queen’s Park as an attacking force. The Rangers’ forwards proceeded to give us a sample of the game they would always like to play. The ball went swiftly rolling from foot to foot, sometimes from Duncan to Paterson, with each of the intermediaries helping it along. Though the QP defence held finely to their task of keeping the score down at all costs, we could always see the sequel inevitable. The continuous pressure harassed the home rear-guard, which is the only excuse for the handling of a pass which Reid made inside the penalty area after he had dribbled close to goal. Gordon converted the penalty kick with seven minutes to go. It was Gordon again who set going another strong attack by swinging the ball over to the left. A corner was conceded, and following this, Cunningham intercepted a centre, and shot the fourth goal with a bonnie shot, which had Gordon Kerr beaten almost before he saw it coming, the men in front having unsighted him. From the centre, the QP forwards rushed to the assault, and McLaren was as near scoring as the amateurs had been all day. Hempsey’s save was the final action in the play. Cunningham’s play was, to me, something of a surprise. He seemed quicker than before in all his movements. His control of the ball was well-nigh perfect, and he was the most dangerous shot on the field. He got two goals, but I tremble to think how many more he might have scored with a little luck. Duncan profited by the fine service of his partner. Reid was so closely watched that it was nearly impossible for him to get a look at the goal, but by drawing off the defence he helped the others. Cairns and Paterson were an effective wing. Some of their second-half play was delightful. Queen’s Park’s forwards had neither the strength nor dash necessary to beat the Rangers’ defence. The Rangers’ half-backs laid a heavy hand on them, and Gordon and Bowie were extra forwards to the winners. Haydock’s absence from the QP half-back line was regarded as a severe handicap, but I thought that H Leslie did very well at centre-half. D McLaren and J Roberts, the wing-halfs were out on an impossible mission. They, however, took their gruelling in the right spirit, and so did Thorpe and Wilson. Gordon Kerr had no chance with any of the goals
