W Martin 55, 58
Lyness pen 65
Match Information
Attendance: 63,000
Referee: A Henderson (Kirkcaldy)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
No counterfeit about this. Giving full credit to Rangers for their few good points, they were well and truly beaten by a Clyde tram that, I daresay, would lay no pretentions to being world beaters. I suppose it will be That the losers were under considerable handicap by the enforced changes, but if this was the best team they could put on the field, I am sorry for them. Candidly, I dont think it was, but this is the affair of those who pick the men. When Clyde got to half-way on equality, they looked as if they had broken the back of Rangers challenge, which might have been a real thing if their forwards had possessed any sort of finish in the first half-hour. Once Clyde got their first goal and a quick second, they were well on the way to victory, and at the finish, they had the opposition reduced to nothing. Martin, as the scorer of all four goals, was the hero of the piece. Bad defence helped him, but he gets high marks for taking his chances. Not too safe to begin with, the Shawfield defence gradually knocked the edge off the Rangers attack which never had much edge. Brown had a good match. Dawson had not, though in more ways than one, the Ibrox man was not in luck. Not so sure to start with Kirk and Hickie became better and better as the game went on. Turnbull got mothering out of Kirk, and he had himself largely to blame for that for he persisted in trying to beat the wee Shawfield battler the wrong way. With Main up against hot stiff in Weir, the Ibrox wing had a hard row to how, though Lyness deserves credit for so valiantly striving to bring out something that wasnt there. Thornton was another who ran himself out, but he never got the scoring chances which Martin got, and you can take that as indication of the merits of the two defences. Andy body would have been sorry for McPhail because though the will to do was there he just did not have the old power to work out his intentions. Over the game, the Clyde forwards had no more of the ball than the other lot had, but when they were winning, they showed how a weakening Rangers defence could be spreadeagled. Although sometimes rash, Robertson was a handful and both Wallace and Gillies played their part. Shaw, Symon, Lyness and Thornton were the Rangers men who passes muster, but it was a bad day for Rangers and a great day for Clyde. McPhail was in evidence right away with a nice pass to Turnbull, but the winger slipped as he was connecting with the ball and did not get his centre properly across. Excitement was in tap when McPhail headed as if for the net, following a free kick nicely placed by Symon; But Brown brought off a one-handed save. Next Minute Martin got clear away, but Dawson saved the point-blank shot. It was hard going, with both teams giving all they had and neither able to claim much advantage. Gillies did the right thing when he went for a flying shot from an angle which would have made it difficult for Dawson had it been on the target. Rangers could force corners, but Clydes defence was very safe, with Broen showing supreme confidence. He came out to a shot by McPhail when hesitancy would have let Thornton in. Then gillies got going again, and another pile-driver was brilliantly saved by Dawson. When Rangers next went to the attack, Lyness had a chance with Brown out of his goal, but he shot wide. More frequently on the attack, the Rangers forwards could not make much impression for a time, but at length they applied the screw, and the Clyde defence was on the grill. A shot by Lyness was flying for the net when the ball glanced off a defender and went for a corner. It was quite clear that the Clyde forwards did not aim at working the ball close up to goal. The snap-shot was the thing and Martin was not far off with one. An injury to Shaw after half an hour looking bad for the Rangers. He had to go behind the goal for attention and was limping. Next minute Symon was injured, but he was able to resume, and with Shaw returning also, the contest waged furiously, the crowd roaring themselves hoarse all the time. There was little scope for settled play, so keen was the tackling. Mistakes were made, but always someone came to the rescue. McKillop made a good recovery when Gillies looked like slipping through and then Turnbull failed badly when Thornton gave him a beautiful pass. Falloon came by an injury, but he was up and at it in no time. Rangers set up another spell of pressure, but it all came to nothing, and a sternly fought first-half found the teams as they had started. Clyde were first on the move on restarting, and Dawson had to cut out a well-placed corner by Robertson. Then Thornton, in a boring movement along the right wing, drew the Clyde defence and got the ball nicely across, but there as no taker. It was thrust and parry and still anybodys game. It seemed a case of which defence would make the first mistake. When Robertson got clear away, danger loomed for Rangers, but Simpson stopped him by pulling his jersey, and this led to the opening goal after 10 minutes. Beaton placed the free kick, and Martin meeting the ball with his head steered it into the net out of Dawsons reach. The marking was bad. That was a blow for Rangers and three minutes later another fell to them. Gillies placed a corner kick and Martin headed through at Dawsons left-hand post. After 20 minutes Lyness was going through when he was brought down and he himself converted the penalty-kick. So, there was still a chance, if a small one, for their forwards still could not get together. It disappeared to all intents four minutes later, when Dawson palmed out a centre from Noble and Martin snapped at the chance to turn the ball into the net. And just to show how goals could be got, Martin raced away on the left, beat McKillop and with Dawson coming out a bit, shot for where the space was left, and made the tie a memorable one for him with four goals.
