Thornton 4
Prior pen 17
S Symon 38
A Venters 44
Keane 48
W Waddell
Kerr og
Match Information
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: M.C. Hutton (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
I seem fated to be present when a goalkeeper makes you feel as though the end of the world had come for him. Think of the luckless Kerr at Ibro. Now, this boy is really a goalkeeper of unusual excellence. No doubt about that. But yesterday je let two balls slip into the net I am sure he would stop were he to play until he is a hundred. Two blunders, two goals. That id precisely what it meant. It might have meant, too the breaking of his mates spirit. That did not happen, for the last one came in the dying minutes and, in any case, Hibs never gave up. You will see, therefore, that the story is not told in the result. It was a thriller, a fast, fascinating struggle that gripped as few have done this season. And let there be no mistake about it, Rangers were against the collar for protracted spells. This, I would add, was all the more surprising because of how they started. Then they threw themselves against the defiant Easter Road defenders as though they would crush them at will. Thornton, as was expected, swung to a ball that dropped for him after a misunderstanding between Miller and Kerr and so there we had Rangers in front with, but seven minutes gone. But when Prior equalised from the spot ten minutes later, the game somersaulted. Hibs saw a chance. Suddenly their elusive, clever little forwards began to do big things. Rangers were taken aback. Their domination broken, they found that this Edinburgh company could not be treated with scorn. Indeed, had not Milne, in front of goal, missed his kick as did Waddell for Rangers a little later, we might have had the drama of another Ibrox shock. Yes, it was just as bad as that for them. Seven minutes before the interval, however, Scott Symon thundered home a beautifully-judged twenty yards drive and hard on top of it. Venters recorded with his head one of the finest goals I have seen for many a day. Out on the wing, Thornton whipped the ball over. As Thornton was jockeying for position, his colleague went through. The old head was seen here. Over came the ball and without stopping in his tracks, Alec adroitly nodded it away from Kerr into the net. Keans smartly-taken goal early in the second half opened up the issue again, but first Waddell, with a shot from the bye-line, and then Kinnear, direct from a corner-kick, scored with balls that Kerr helped through. I like this Hibs team. There is coolness, audacity and skill in front. Nutley maybe footered, but Milne was as cute as a cart-load of monkeys and Kean and Finnigan were ever up and ready for every chance. I thought a mistake was made, however, in not bringing McIntrye more into the game. And I must say a word about Prior. Most improved back I have seen. He was almost the equal of Dougie Gray. Such a statement requires no more painting. When Shaw was carried off on a stretcher a quarter of an hour before the end, it looked as though his leg had gone completely. He hirpled back after ten minutes, bit was advised to retire. It was only one of the many casualties, but I must emphasise that the match, so strenuously waged, never lost its clean, sporting flavour. Brown completely overshadowed the other middlemen, but in front, Harrison was most ineffective. Really only Venters and Thornton were consistently good. The Referee There were many who shouted for his head. Mungo didnt worry he kept it in more ways than one!
