D Brown (3)
Match Information
Attendance: 14,000
Referee: A Allan (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Say that the Rangers deserved to win at Ibrox and you praise them up to the limit. They were easily the better of two teams that could never have been found guilty of making the crowd mad with delight. As to the theory of Clydebank bringing the other side down to their level, I don’t agree with it at all. Rangers were working on their own plan, and it was incomplete workmanship that was wrong with them. I am thinking more particularly of that painfully drab second half. The earlier period was quite interesting. In fact, the Rangers’ forwards played so well up to the interval, and the Clydebank vanguard also showed so many qualities that is was a mystery how they both managed afterwards to get down to such a level. About the opening play of the Rangers there was a vivacity that had any amount of promise. Both wings made headway, but Duncan too often made his centres look like shots that gave no difficulty to McTurk. In fact there was little sting in the Ibrox team’s attack, but less in that of Clydebank’s more deliberate method, despite a tendency on the part of the home rear lines to become excited under pressure. Thus, though the play ran largely in favour of the ‘Light Blues,’ there was precious little likelihood of a score. But then a mistake by Livingstone in not getting a pass back enough of ‘the boot’ left a chance on for Brown, who dashed in, got at the ball before McTurk, and scored. Rangers’ second gaol was also something of a gift. Duncan went off with a pass from Aitken and centred. Brown was following up the ball at a ‘mile a minute,’ and both reached Gilhooly almost at the same instant, so that there was some excuse for the Clydebank centre-half doing exactly the wrong thing – he diverted the ball into the net. During the bigger portion of the second half we saw a dreary exposition of nothing in particular. Rangers were nearly always in among the Clydebank outer defences, but a lot that mattered to McTurk. It was only after some 20 minutes that Lock discovered he was playing, but for the most part Manderson and Blair, supported chiefly by Dixon, attended to the needs of the situation. Latterly Cunningham went to inside right, and Cairns and Aitken became the left wing. This gave some speed-up again to the Rangers’ attack, and Brown was several times the proverbial yard late before he caught a centre from Duncan and banged it past McTurk with only a minute to go. Blair was Rangers’ outstanding success, and Dixon did a lot of destructive work, but the team lacked a real steadying influence. The Duncan-Aitken wing was not a success, though they had some spectacular runs. Cairns began well and tired, but Brown was a trier to the very end, and his last goal was a redeeming feature. Clydebank’s defence did well despite the mistakes, but the forwards were rather trying to the nerves. Hamilton showed many good points when kept going, but the play of the line was too jerky to give him a chance. Sometimes it was doubtful in which direction it was playing.
