J Smith 42
R Smith 90
Missed Penalties
G Brown pen miss 60
Match Information
Attendance: 18,000
Referee: H Watson (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Rangers three-season-old home record of immunity from defeat still holds good. But oh! what a narrow escape it had yesterday. It was a curious sort of game, and all the thrills of it were limited to the last fifteen minutes. At the end of the first portion, Rangers led by one goal to nil. The goal was scored by Smith after Venters had fired a shot that was blocked and led to the Aberdeen goalkeeper rushing out. He threw himself at the ball, but the rangers centre got there first and, more or less, walked the ball into the back of the rigging. Rangers should have held a commanding, a winning lead, at the interval. In intelligent aggressiveness they were far ahead of the opposition. They moved with an understanding that was absent in the Dons, whose forwards were too prone to double back, twist and turn, on reaching shooting distance. From this I except Armstrong. He never got a chance even to do that. It was as if he were not taking part in the game, He was completely neglected, and I cant recall one occasion when he got a pass that gave him the slightest opportunity to cause damage. Rangers, on the other hand, were most purposeful, always looking forwards when on the attack. By a curious serious of happenings, it was always left to McPhail to put on the finishing touch, and I can call twenty-odd thousand witnesses to the fact that he mulled several great chances, particularly with his head. Venters, too I thought, was at fault on several occasions. But for a different reason. He was the one man whose hesitancy led to several likely openings being spoiled. Too frequently he couldnt make up his mind what to do, and sometimes when he did, he elected to do the wrong thing. Quarter of an hour from the interval, McPhail, as the result of a simple-looking tackle, went off with a damaged leg. As he had been so much in the picture, his absence seemed to give Aberdeen a glorious chance of breaking the Ibrox record. Maybe the home support thought so too. They started to growl. However, McPhail returned a few minutes before half-time, and his reappearance synchronised with Smiths goal. Rangers started the second half by going through Aberdeen like a knife through tissue paper, and during one of their bombardments they were awarded a penalty. Gillick had centred the ball, and it hit the far-away upright and cannoned on to McGill, who elbowed it out. Venters took the kick, but as he ran to shoot the referees whistle blew. Smith saved the shot but couldnt hold it. Venters ran on to bang the rebound into the net. I do not know why the referee whistled, but the kick was ordered to be taken again. Brown, this time, was chosen for the job, and he struck Smiths right-hand upright. It was all Rangers at this period, and the expected goal came at the end of sixteen minutes. Main sent in a corner kick. McPhail, with his head, turned it towards goal, a slowly drooping ball. The Aberdeen Smith waited on it with upstretched hand, obviously with the intention of tipping it over the bar. The Rangers Smith dashed in, and in doing so distracted his namesakes attention, and hustled the ball over the line. The game looked finished. But Aberdeen evidently were not, and they started to play in the way they had been expected to do from the beginning. They put plenty of spice into their work, and we saw Rangers defence puzzled. With Dawson out of his goal, Mills slapped the ball in. Gray got a foot to it, but in my opinion, he was too late. The ball was over the line. However, the referee though otherwise. Then fifteen minutes from the end, the Dons got a goal. An oblique ball came over from the right. Dawsons outstretched hand or Mills head? The latter won. The game was good, now full of excitement. The previous play was made to look insipid by comparison. Each lot, in turn, had a go, with rangers, perhaps, looking the more dangerous. But the Aberdeen defence was a more solid affair than that of the opposition. Then in the very last minute, cane the equaliser. Beynon, on the right, sent over a low ball that travelled at an angle across the goal. Armstrong missed it, Mills misses it, but R Smith, running in, got it and slapped it past Dawson, who threw himself vainly to his right-hand post. That was in the very final minute of the game. A hectic finish, and one that racing people might describe as a turn-up. On this game, Rangers are not the power that have been. Aberdeen are a likely lot, and a team that may achieve a big measure of success or jog along among the middle-class members. I cant just make up my mind. But in should say that they will be the devil to beat at home. Their one big fault is the lack of pith in the finishing area. Whatever understanding the forwards have in the outfield they lost twenty yards or so from goal. Let them put more into their work at close quarters. In summing them up, though, let us bear in mind that not many teams could level a two-goal deficit at Ibrox. Brown missed a 60th minute penalty
