Match ended 0-0
Match Information
Attendance: 69,543
Referee: W Bell (Motherwell)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
There will be divers views about this game. So far as the impartial spectator are concerned. T reckon most enjoyed it, while others would leave Ibrox with the feeling that more than goals was lacking. So far as I am concerned, I found the entertainment good, possibly because it ticked my vanity to see spread out before me the stuff that I had visualised beforehand. It was Cup-tie football in the accepted sense of the term. Actual skill was sacrificed on the altar of hurly-burly movement. Hearts, no doubt in full and perfect realisation of the fact that Rangers are their superiors so far as team understanding is concerned, went out to upset the machine, and they certainly succeeded in doing so far long spells. They themselves did not show much concern about organised attack. They depended on sporadic raiding, concentrating chiefly on the left, where Murray, showing a fine turn of speed, made himself conspicuous by frequent runs up the touch-line. Rangers were the better team, and might have won, but I would not care to say that they will escape a knock-out punch at Tynecastle. Hearts must go on to the pitch for the replay with much more confidence than that which was their yesterdays line up. If this game is ever recalled it will be chiefly for Marshalls amazing miss of a certain goal in the first half. Indeed, I do believe that Marshall, had he scored, as he undoubtedly should have, would have laid the foundation of a comfortable Rangers victory. At the time of the great miss, Rangers half-backs, and the fellows behind, had asserted themselves to travel. It was for the Rangers attack to carry on with their part of the job, and I thank a goal would have given them the necessary encouragement, in addition to weakening the morale of Hearts. But Marshall failed. He was clear through and had no one but Harkness to beat. The goalkeeper stepped out of his goal, and from less than a dozen yards Marshall hit the ball with his left foot. But he hit it badly, and the ball went away from the target, travelling low past the goalkeepers left-hand post. Rangers kept at it, but their forward play was ragged and disjoined. McPhail may or may hot have been fit, but it seemed to me that he was not. He played with an almost complete lack of his accustomed skill. Smith at outside left at times must have exasperated even his most ardent admirers. He was frequently short and inaccurate with his passes and now and again overran the ball. Marshall seldom gave his partner the forward passes that a winger like to gallop after. Of course, credit must be given the Hearts rear lines for their defence. It was a stuffy affair, with each member quick at the cover-up, and always someone on the spot to intercept anything that looked dangerous. However, even if Rangers forwards were not what they were expected to be, they always appeared a lot more dangerous than the other five, who were really insipid. Trie, the feeding from behind was faulty, and White spent the first half jumping in the air and trying to reach his wingers with headers. At the interval, I thought Rangers were good to win the tie. When they resumed with a rush, with Fleming at outside left and Smith at centre-forward, it looked as if the physical attributes of the home team would literally barge a way past Harkness. But it was a case of so far and no farther. The ball was actually in the net on one occasion, but the referee, a fraction of a second previously, had blown his whistle for an infringement. All the thrills of the second half were in the region of Harkness, and twice he was a very lucky man. Once a shot was headed by centre-half Johnstone, and struck the cross-bar, and later Fleming, after racing his way through, beat the goalkeeper, only to be baulked on the goal-line. How the crowd roared on these occasions! They gasped too with excitement as, in the midway period of this half, Rangers every man exerting himself to his utmost, crowded in on the Hearts goal. Here the Tynecastle defence was really heroic. They fought with that back-to-the-wall spirit that so often turns the tide of battle, and they really deserved to come through with tie goal intact. Rangers, near the end, gave the impression that the fates were against them. Gradually the steam died out of them, and as the finish approached, Hearts nearly came to winning the tie. White was given a chance to run in, but stumbled at the crucial moment, and Dawson breathed freely. Rangers, so far as territorial advantage was concerned, deserved to win, but Hearts deserved the draw by reason of their magnificent defensive stand when the fortunes of battle looked to be going against them. Hearts big fault, as it appeared to me, was a lack of effective punch in the forward line. Even when they were closest to Dawson, one had the feeling that they would not score. Massie, who impressed so much last Saturday as a half-back, was not nearly such a commanding force as a forward. Walker, whom I was watching for the first time, showed occasional classy touches, but he had not the same physique for a hard-going game of this type, where a man had to take hard knocks and come up prepared to take more. Walker was too easily brushed aside, too easily dispossessed in a tackle. Murray was the best of the forwards. I believe that those who think they know what is best for Hearts were annoyed at Hearty being placed in the left back berth. The lads display was not a classic one, but it was a mighty useful one. True, he was sometimes slow in his methods, but he got there just the same. Rangers may think themselves unfortunate not to win. Well, they are sufficiently acquainted with the rules of the game to know that outfield advantage is no use unless there are to show for it. Making themselves a battering ram did not succeed here
