Quinn >45
Match Information
Attendance: 55,000
Referee: J.T. Ibbotson (Derby)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
For the ninth time in their history, the Celts on Saturday last, at Hampden Park, won the Glasgow Cup after the most thrilling game ever witnessed in the cup competition. I have seen the majority of the Titanic Cup and League struggles between the two most powerful club rivals in modern football, but never a game which produced such fierce and strenuous play. The herculean individual sides kept 54,000 spectators in a whirl of excitement up to the close. Often James Quinn has pulled his team through in a tough encounter where physicalism and outstanding individual exertion were wanted. Many sensational goals have been got by the famous centre forward, rarely one that came as opportune to his team as that goal scored on the Queen’s Park ground on Saturday which decided a contest which will be spoken of for months to come. The first half, with its multitude of nerve-racking incidents, passed without either goalkeeper having been beaten, and the second portion had only gone six minutes when Quinn got the opportunity he had waited for. A ‘spooned’ kick from McKenzie saw the ball diverted high to the rear. McKenzie rushed back to recover, Quinn never took his eyes off the ball. Watching the flight, regardless of the onrushing Lock, and the efforts of Law and McKenzie on either side of him, the Celtic centre expended all his energy in one supreme effort. Both backs he shouldered off, the goalkeeper lay prostrate, and the next instant the ball left his foot and found a haven in the net. Quinn, too found mother earth. Like some of the players on both sides, he was none too fit for severe work at the moment, on account of the desperate charging and energy expended in the first half of individual deeds. “Only Quinn could have scored such a goal,” was the common expression one heard on all sides after it was all over. The yell of frenzied joy that burst from the throats of the multitude might have been heard at Blantyre. Every incident in this glorious, breezy twenty-third Cup final paled before this heroic feat. Without it the play surpassed for earnestness and keenness any football match I have seen since Hearts and Celtic gladdened the spectators at Ibrox Park in 1901 in the last and greatest struggle that year for the Scottish Cup. In the first half the players took extraordinary risks. Up to the point there was a delightful abandon in their movements, but unnecessary vigour was imparted, and frequently strong men were laid low and stoppages occurred. No match in Glasgow this season has seen the trainers’ embrocation so often in evidence. It would have paid both teams better had they played the ball more. Heavy body charging, bordering on the violent, takes so much out of a player, that his side is handicapped by a foolish excess of zeal. The ‘riot act’ must have been read to the players in the pavilion during the interval, for the second half was productive of more skill and less recklessness. The Celts had a swerving wind in their favour in the first half, and it moderated slightly shortly before the crossover. So keen was the play that neither attack got time to settle. No sooner was the ball passed than an opponent’s rushed to the spot to intervene. Combined action was well-nigh impossible. The marked difference in the play of the teams was at half-back, and it was the more profitable methods of the Celtic trio in studying their forwards that entitled them to be considered the slightly better side. There was no disgrace in being beaten after such a game. Excepting Gordon, the Rangers half-backs, while playing well, did not place the ball in front, and more open kicks were given the Celtic backs than fell to the lot of Law and McKenzie. An indication of this defect in the Rangers’ half-back play was seen in the neglect of the wing forwards, especially in the opening half. After the first run down at the start, when Hogg screwed the ball across the goal, and McPherson failed to utilise the opening, Hogg stood on the line for about 18 minutes without getting a pass, and three of the first four he got were sent wildly into touch. Nothing better in the game was seen, apart from Quinn’s goal, than the brilliant rallies of the Rangers to draw level in the closing stages. But the ball never was long at one end, and the last few minutes found Hunter and Quinn almost scoring. What applies to the one back division held good about other. Robustness and fearlessness were the outstanding qualities. Lock and Adams the rival goalkeepers, were consistently clever. It was the Celts’ best game of the season. Not a single man failed on either side. Seldom one sees such a trying ordeal between attack and defence. Forward, the Rangers were best served by Hogg, Reid and Hunter, the last-named in the last half-hour. Johnstone justified his selection by the Celts, and Quinn and McMenemy were the life of the attack, if less on the ball than usual
