B McPhail
G Brown
Match Information
Attendance: 11,000
Referee: M.C. Hutton (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Hats off to big Bill Paterson. The stand at Ibrox let him have a resounding cheer as he walked off at the finish. They knew a goalkeeper when they saw him. But Bill was not the only pebble on the beach. Crapnell and McQueen stood guard with fine resolution and the half-backs fought a plucky fight against Rangers’ forwards, who were penetrative and strong. There was some clever play among the Broomfield forwards too, but they did not get the full weight of their attack to bear as did the Rangers’ line. Against the wind in the first half, the Ibrox forwards contrived to keep the ball low, and they were often within point-blank shooting range, but between Paterson’s saving and the good covering-up of the men in front, of him goals were difficult to get. The only one of the first half was smashed home by McPhail after half-an-hour. He sprang at a chance after Morton had cleared the defence and centred and McQueen had partially saved. Paterson had no chance here. There were other good chances going but the wind was a factor, and often caused the ball to swirl awkwardly. Airdrie had the breeze behind them first half, and they endeavoured to make use of it, frequently troubling the Ibrox defence considerably. The best chance came to Somerville. It was the kind he misses only once in a while. Against the wind in the second half, Broomfield’s boys did marvellously well. They lost a second goal in five minutes when Brown shot into the corner of the net following an Archibald corner kick and a clearance, but after that they contested every inch of ground, were plucky in defence, and capable of making a likely raid, in which McDougall and Somervile and Muir were the leaders-out. Three minutes from the end McPhail was carried off by trainer Kerr, the strong man. The cause was a wrench of the old left ankle. It was a hard-fought match, and while Rangers were the team with the greater resource and were foiled of more goals only by the brilliance of Paterson, Airdrieonians, as a whole, came well out of it. Hamilton had little to do compared with big Bill, but he did his little well. Gray was a fine back, and Buchanan pretty safe, although having sometimes to give best to the light-footed McDougall. Muirhead made some quick runs through, and played well to Brown, who in turn, distributed his oases cleverly. Morton did a lot of clever forcing play, from which great danger arose for Paterson. McPhail has not quite recovered his old touch. I liked Preston for the way he sent the ball along low to his wing. Sharp kept a good watch and was always serviceable. The forwards finished badly but were clever in the open
