J Paterson
Match Information
Attendance: 10,000
Referee: J.B. Stevenson (Motherwell)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
A score as that at Ibrox suggest a lot of whirling excitement, stirring adventures, and narrow escapes. In that sense the score suggest the right thing. But there is one thing it does not suggest. I mean the absolutely predominant part played by Rangers in a game of Holding interest. Only one goal could they get, but they have often and often had much less of a game and won by a handful of goals. The strongest feature of a match out of which the losers, let me say, took a vast amount of credit was the persistence of the Rangers forwards in threatening to score and the persistence of the Falkirk defence in preventing them. Yet the game had also this peculiar feature, that Falkirk, when they shook themselves free to attack, which they often did in the first half, and precious seldom in the second half, were as like scoring as were the other side, and, in fact, more than once gave the home supporters cold shivers. It was not all to the advantage of Rangers that they were able to press so much, because in this way the Falkirk defence became well warmed to the task of defending, and had simply to stand firm around their goal to make opening for the Rangers sharpshooters difficult to find. But apart from this, the reasons why Rangers failed to return a score more in keeping with the run of the play were, first the fine recovery work of Reilly; second the resolute, never-say-die defence of Orrock and Donaldson; and third, the unfailing cleverness of Stewart. In one sense Stewart was fortunate. All the best shots came high, and he simply revelled in clutching the ball under the bar, arms fully stretched, when a shorter man would have been exonerated had half a dozen of such balls beaten him. But some if the finishing by the Rangers forwards was poor. They misused the very best chances, Paterson twice being guilty, Cunningham more than once, while Reid’s determination to score in the second half spoiled some excellent chances of letting the others through. The only goal was scored nearing the interval, and richly as it was deserved, Stewart was somewhat unlucky to see himself beaten. When the ball came over from the right it appeared likely to fall at the feet of Cairns, and Stewart went out to forestall him. But something else happened. Paterson got it, and with Stewart yards out of his goal, the Rangers left winger neatly lifted the leather over his head and planted it in the net. A looseness in the Rangers defence in this half several times nearly saw the side down. Twice it was touch-and-go for Robertson getting through, while on another occasion McCulloch’s shot was barely stopped on the line by Hempsey. This looseness was apparent in the second half also, but if got fewer chances to show itself, because the Rangers forwards were nearly always on the ball. While the Falkirk defence was the bulwark of the team, the forwards frequently moved sweetly on the wings. Brown at inside left gave Corporal McDougall some nice passes, and the soldier boy proved himself worthy. He showed excellent control of the ball, and against a less speedy man than Manderson would have been able to make better use of the clear field his cleverness made for him. Murphy and McCulloch, on the right wing, gave the Rangers defence on their side of the field a lot of worry in the first half, and I should say this is a wing worth sticking to. Robertson was more than a match for Logan in the first half. He went through in something like the old style of the old snap in finishing, which was probably simply the expression of military life as distinct from a civilian’s football training. For all their prominence, the Rangers forwards served up a curious mixture of the good and the mediocre. Gordon and Hendry gave them heaps of the ball, and were, perhaps, too good to them, because they found it then so easy to make headway that they forgot to try to draw the Falkirk defence. A lot of Cunningham’s passes went amiss, and Reid seemed to have put seccotine to his boot leather when he got the ball. The centre however was shooting with terrific force when he did shoot. One of his drives knocked out Orrock on the spot. Cairns and Paterson gave us some pretty passing, but I am certain both should have done better as marksmen
