A Cunningham (3)
J Paterson
Match Information
Attendance: 7,000
Referee: J Lyons (Hamilton)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
A few shells here and there, and Ibrox Park would have looked very like the sea shore, for the sand was there in plenty, good and brown. Then, to keep up the likeness, we hand calms – and a terrible storm. The crux of the game is to be found in the storm. Before it came on, the Hibs had trimmed their sails and were going along merrily. When it had passed away the Hibernian craft was so to say, found wrecked. But we shall come to that. With Bennett at outside right and Paterson on the left again, Rangers were a whole team once more. The Hibs at the eleventh hour had to make a chance in defence, Kerr being down with influenza, so that Dornan partnered Girdwood at back. Although it was apparent from the first that the sanded pitch, which was flint hard underneath, was irksome to the players, Rangers were soon getting ahead with quick passing. In seven minutes, Bennett dribbled down until he though it time to pass to Cunningham, who on the instant, shot with unfailing aim, and so forcefully that the ball sped past Allan’s guard into the net. For a moment things looked black for the Hibs, but it wasn’t the time for the storm yet. In fact, all other way. Lennie began to career past Muir on the right wing, and between his troublesome centres, and Manderson fluking his clearances, not to mention a general lack of steadiness and composure among the Rangers’ half-backs, it was soon clear that trouble was brewing for the Light Blues. Hempsey twice got the ball round the post with noting to spare, then Taylor shot a little wide, then Hutchison made poor use of a glorious chance from Lennie, and so on and so forth. Between times the Rangers’ forwards were vainly trying to catch hold of their early game, and once Reid let go a great shot that Allan saved in absolutely brilliant style. But that Hibernian goal was morally bound to come, and come it did. Lennie got round Muir once more, swept in one at Hempsey, who was bothered by Bowie ‘crowding’ him, and before he could take proper hold of the ball Hutchison was in on him and had tapped it through his hands into the net. After that, Rangers could claim no advantage. R Smith and Newton held the opposing wings by keen tackling, and Girdwood and Dornan saw that precious little beat them. Reid had one desperate run that neatly succeeded, but generally the Rangers’ forwards and halves held the ball too long and played to one another too closely. The Hibs swung the ball here and there. Many a time the forwards seemed to shun each other, yet the very fact that they were scattered all over the place puzzled the Rangers’ defence more than the regulation style of forward play would have done. It was just that the Hibs had their own way of doing things, and for the moment it was suiting the purpose. At any rate, they got to the interval with level pegs, and, what is more, were a goal up within a second or two after the restart. Hutchison began the movement from the centre, and Fleming and Taylor joining in, they did not let a Rangers’ man have a kick at the ball until Hutchison had shot a pretty goal. Then Hempsey kicked it down the field. I am bound to say that the Rangers’ case looked rather desperate then, for the Hibs took a thorough hold of them and were more like scoring another goal than losing one. The Ibrox wings could make no headway against Smith and Newton, while the Hibs forwards threatened the Rangers’ defence time and again. But then the storm arose. Gordon represented the lightning when he tore down the field to the left and drove in a terrific shot. Allan dived to save, the ball hit the post and rebounded far out, and Cunningham, getting hold, rammed it into the net before Allan could recover. Less than ten minutes later Rangers got a free kick, and before the Hibs’ defence had realised it the ball was pushed out to Paterson, who ran ahead and then shot a beautiful goal. Five minutes more, and Paterson had dribbled down again and swung the ball over to Cunningham, who like a true gunner, shot his own third and his team’s fourth goal. Then the storm subsided. That hurricane bit of Rangers’ attack, with its speedy passing and deadly shooting, had altered the whole appearance of a game that had been going well enough for the team now hopelessly beaten. I need not dwell on the players, because I am perfectly certain that a team like Rangers could not play their natural game on a pitch so unfavourable. Where they erred for the greater part of the match was in attempting to play their natural game. That suited the Hibs exactly. The pitch and the mistake in tactics by Rangers levelled up the teams, and the game was saved for the home side only by that bit of thunder and lightning attack in the second half that swept the Hibs defence off their feet. Manderson recovered from a bad start, but Muir never was himself. Hempsey might have saved the first goal but for Bowie being in the way. The half-backs were poor as a line, and, in fact, the Hibs rear lines for the greater part of the game played the more paying football, with Dornan, Smith and Newton outstanding. Gordon was too often ‘missing’ as a centre-half. Rangers were superior forward, because that had more balance, but Lennie was as clever as any of the ten, with Paterson his only goal equal. Bennett shaped well at outside right, and Cunningham’s shooting was deadly, but Reid was so closely shadowed by Paterson that he could not get more than a shot or two, even though Cairns tried and tried again to send him in
