McColl (2)
Match Information
Attendance: 30,000
Referee: unknown - to be confirmed
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Willie Cringan supplied the missing lick or a ling-felt want - call it what you will – in the Celtic team at Ibrox Park, where Rangers were outclassed sufficiently long for the champions to place themselves in the Glasgow Charity Cup final. He was the connecting link in the chain which bound together the Parkhead attack and defence. In the earlier stages the Sunderland and Ayr United half-back played magnificently; he knew just the sort of balls Master McMenemy and ‘Gingery’ Gallagher required and wanted and he saw that they got them. The response of the inside men was excellent; the result delightful football, and the consequent temporary eclipse of the opposition. After this bad Ibrox half-hour, which was punctuated by a goal by McColl at the end of fifteen minutes, the, by comparison, unmethodical and ragged Rangers improved much. They pressed perhaps as much as their conquerors, but they were seldom or never convincing, and only once would I say they were really dangerous. That was when the game had eleven minutes to run. For once in a way both McNair and Dodds were caught napping, and Gordon, foraging forward, got in a difficult shot which Shaw touched clear with his left hand. It would not have surprised me had a penalty been awarded here. I think the Sergeant would have been a scorer had he not been illegally interfered with. But the game was lost and won long before this – only that opening half-hour to which I have alluded really mattered in the tie. During this period the entire Parkhead eleven wrought like a machine. For the most credit is due to the trio I have already given honourable mention – or eulogised, should I say? McMenemy and Gallagher were simply immense hereabout . On a beautiful grassy footing, just sufficiently moist to be comfortable, they held the ball – stood on it, I might say; they placed it to the right, to the left, or forward just as the spirit moved them. Now and again one or other would take it back a yard or two to the discomfiture of their opponents; on occasion Gallagher would dash ahead like a flash as he alone can. There was nothing like it on the other side which was terribly disjoined by comparison. Herein more than in anything else lay the difference between the teams. The Rangers hadn’t a first-rate constructive agent in their whole box of tricks. They were eleven distinct, honest, go-all-the-time workers. But what chance had the hardest grafters you ever saw against a team moving as one man, and with the precision of a well-oiled machine, almost? Sandwiched between such brainy players as McMenemy and Gallagher, McColl could hardly fail, although opposed to Pursell, the most successful unit on the Ibrox side. The Parkhead centre was often robbed or knocked off by Peter, but he kept galloping ahead in characteristic fashion, and succeeded. A grand early first-time effort of his was worthy of a better fate, but he made amends when Gallagher let him away on his first scoring mission, just after Corporal Lindsay had picked ‘Patsy’s props’ from him inside the penalty area. McColl’s second goal was of the soft order. The entire Ibrox defence were at fault, and Martin and Hempsey more than the others. The old St Anthony’s boy was given his ‘ain braw time’ to gather McAtee’s cross, which cane to him rather awkwardly. He managed to bring it down, however, and let go for the inside of Hempsey’s left-hand upright with a low-down ball, behind which there was very little weight. I think Hempsey should have got it. Neither Browning nor McAtee was in quite the same class as his partner, but both did a lot of useful work. McAtee, as he always or nearly always does, put over half a dozen or so really dangerous centres. McStay and Brown, if much less polished than their brilliant Ponfeigh partner, were stickers all the time, and if Dodd’s kicking was not what it was once upon a time, the rear triumvirate was as sound as a bell. What an understanding exists between Shaw, Dodds and McNair! A section of the crowd roundly ‘goosed’ their passing back game, in which newcomer Cringan joined once or twice. Nothing I know has a more disconcerting effect on opposing forwards, or gets on the nerves of supporters of the other fellows, than this ‘game,’ which has been made something of a fine art at Parkhead. If I say that Hempsey got rid of a number of difficult balls in good style, and that he was whole-heartedly supported by Manderson, Blair and Pursell, I have said perhaps all I can in favour of the Ibrox defence. This quartette really saved the Rangers’ bacon. Bowie wrought better in conjunction with his forwards than any of the other half-backs, but I prefer him in his own place – forward. Sergeant Gordon, although he and Dodds figured in a nasty little ‘incident’ towards the close, shoed more restraint than he does usually when playing in any of the forward position. He did very well and had no luck, but his true place is nearer his own goal. Cairns was but the shadow of the Cairns of a year or more ago, and Lawson undid any good he did by faulty or carless finishing. Corporal Lindsay lay too far behind to be of much use to his partner or his side. When he did get the chance, however, this Archibald boy embraced his opportunity with both hands, so to speak. He got across a lot of good balls, and shaped so well otherwise that Mr Wilton fixed him up for next season
