A Cunningham (2, 1 pen)
S Duncan
Match Information
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: T Dougray (Bellshill)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The game at Ibrox Park reminded me of an oratorio. It had its sweet passages, its boisterous bits, its crescendos and its pianissimos. It had something, also which an oratorio doesn’t always possess – a Broken Melody. The Broken Melody was played by Hamilton Academicals. Take the first half. In it there was as pretty an aggregation of football as I have seen in any game this season. The bigger portion of this pretty football was played by the Academicals. But it is not all goals that glitter. Sweeter movements among forwards I haven’t witnessed since the season came in. But – and now for the Broken Melody – they couldn’t finish. Had their shots been as straight and as strong as their combination was harmonious it wasn’t Rangers who would have scored first. But the Academicals appeared very like a team that had brought the guns with them and had forgotten the power and shot. They open the game so well that the Rangers’ defence was worried into conceding a penalty within five minutes. A goal for the Academicals would have been the correct thing here, but Stewart’s shot though sufficiently forceful, went nicely enough for Hempsey to get at it with his uplifted hands. Then the Rangers forwards got moving, and from that point onward the first half was keen, fast and interesting to a degree. Of all the chances that developed for scoring it would be impossible to tell, but once Miller, the Academicals centre, was clear away from the Rangers’ outfield defence when he shot from close in, and just grazed the post. Rangers repeatedly raised hopes with clever wing play, but many of the best movements went amiss through Fleming being too eager to get ahead before he had the ball under control, a fault which he partly remedied later on, and can still further rectify with experience. He is full of enterprise and a terrible fellow to work. People don’t have to fetch and carry for him. Well, a right rousing first half was nearing an end – there were just five minutes to go – when, with Fleming off injured in the face, the Rangers’ left wing made one of many pretty runs. From a throw-in Hendry got the ball given back to him, and he promptly swung it away over to the right. Duncan trapped it, got a good look at the target, and with a clinking shot had the first goal of the game on the board. While pleasing the eye, the play of the Academicals’ forward had failed on the side of daintiness and closeness. Against a defence less strong and not so resourceful as that of Rangers, I could easily imagine the same Academicals methods achieving a sweeping success, but here it would have paid them to have swung the ball about more, with the object of opening out the Rangers defence. If such a resort occurred to the Hamilton team, it occurred to them too late, for in the second half Rangers took charge of the game, and after many times threatening the score, they, at the end of twenty minutes, got their second goal. Duncan had cleared the defence inside the penalty area, and was making for a fairly certain score, when he was up-ended. Cunningham converted, and with the whole team now going in great style, a third foal ten minutes later, also by Cunningham, was only faintly indicating the mastery of the home team. Few were the chances given the Academicals in this half, and when the few arrived they were badly misdirected. It was a game with a Fright in it for Rangers. The missing by the Academicals of the penalty so early in the play probably meant a great deal, in different ways to both team. But when it was all over there was a marked margin of everything in favour of Rangers. The Academicals, however, left an excellent impression. In a good Rangers team what impressed me as much as anything was the dashing, athletic-like display by Manderson. His speed, his nippy, resolute tackling, no less than his long and accurate kicking, stamped him as a back of some accomplishment. Hempsey saved the penalty by an exercise of quick judgment, and I can see him getting a reputation for that sort of thing, for against Queen’s Park he also saved one. Muir and the half-backs were kept on the move in the first half, but they latterly took a grip of the Academicals forwards. Hendry made a nice combination with Cairns and Paterson, who had some delightful trips up the left wing. The Academicals defence was more severe on Cairns than it had any right to be. Duncan was in fine form, and had a close connection with all three goals. Balance was a feature of the Hamilton team, and if judged on their first half display, there a few smarter sides. Private Watson might have saved the third goal, but had he thrown himself on the ground at it there was a danger of a collision with the post, for the ball went in close to it. Both Robertson and Garrett put in some sound defence. While the half’s were clever at pushing the ball ahead, I thought they might have followed up closer behind the forwards. But of course, the Rangers’ forwards were a big problem for them to solve, and it was never safe to leave the defence unsupported. McNamee got through a lot of useful spoiling, and he and Purdie often tried to force the game. A stronger finisher than centre Miller would have made a world of difference to the Academicals attack, because both wings could take the ball down and put it into the centre. In the first half Kyle and Kelly were often prominent, and Hanlon and Stewart also, but there was that lack of driving force that denied them the goals that were essential. Stewart missed a 5th minute penalty
