Thornton 5
Collins 25, 87
Thomson 57, pen 76
A Venters 58, 65
Match Information
Attendance: 70,833
Referee: J Baillie (Motherwell)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Go on, rub your eyes! Kilmarnock have done it. The McGrory luck still holds. The mightiest Rangers Ive seen this season except as regards shooting lowered down into the back alley by a team that was all set for black-edges cards a few weeks ago. Where is it all going to end? But who the dickens cares? This was cup-tie football! Seven goals, dozens of magical moves, thrills round the goalkeepers, and high jinks in the crowd. I tried to give a commentary in the stand to a party of blind friends. Why did the fates give me such a sluggish tongue? For this was a game with the unexpected ever round the corner and never far round. Ranger should have won by the length of Sauchiehall Street. Yet they thoroughly deserved to lose. They were over-proficient in the football graces that being something and under-nourished in the arts that end it. Rangers lost more goals in this one game than I believe theyve lost in all their seasons games put together. They were opposed to a team that knew just how far it could go in outfield ball play but had no limitation at all in goal-scoring. The man of the match was Collins, smiling, eager-faced youngster at centre-forward for Killie. His goals were gems that will be remembered when my beard is interfering with these typewriter keys. His equalising goal in the twenty-fifth minute, which neutralised Thorntons clever opening count for Rangers after five minutes, was a dazzling sight. McGrogan had carried the ball along the left. His cross raged over the face of the goal. Before Dawson could put up a hand to stop it, a figure hurtled through the air, and the ball was draping the back trimmings. Pandemonium McGrory himself couldnt have bettered that one. It lifted a rickety, jerky Killie team up off its knees. It should also have proved a pointed to Rangers. The pointer was that this little fellow Collins was a go-getter and that invariably when he went, he got! But the story of the first half was really a story of a Rangers attack that couldnt have burst a paper bag. Main, Venters, Thornton, McPhail, Kinnear the whole bunch of them shot that ball as if they were wearing fathers old carpet slippers. Yet their outfield play was often amazingly clever. At no time in the game could Killie stand comparison in ball control and the release of the pass. The big fellow Reid, for example, who has been a hero in recent ties, was laboriously slow here. Neither was McAvoy the slick-moving boy he can be the tackling was too keen for him. Yet, despite all this, Killie won. Isnt that all the greater cause for congratulation? In the tenth minute of the second half came a tremendous thrill. Simpson allowed a cross from McGrogan to go to Dawson, as he thought. Actually, it wasnt a goalkeepers ball and Jerry managed only to beat it down to Thomson, who promptly rapped it home. The Killie fans still yelling their heads off when the scorers were again level. Right from the kick-off, McPhail, Venters and Thornton worked the ball downfield, and Venters popped it home without a Kilmarnock man touching the ball. Gosh, what a game! At this time, Rangers were looking to Kinnear to carry them home. The winger was sailing past Fyfe as if the Killie right back was pinned to the ground. It seemed to be nae bother. Kinnear threw over enough crosses to fill a cemetery. But the goalmouth was full of dead men. However, a bit of manoeuvring on the right left Venters a chance, which he took after twenty minutes. Up to this point, Killie had been struggling to do something. Now they shook themselves free and staged an attack which gained them three successive corners. When this spent itself, Rangers wing halfs got going again, and we were back at the old stance. Ot looked as if the McGrory luck had run its course. But we were discounting this daft season of cup-tie football. A harmless clearance by Sammy Ross took the ball flying upfield. Simpson and Collins both chased it towards Rangers goal. Simpson fell, and the ball ran clear near goal. I thought that, even then, Dawson would have been able to smother any danger. Jimmy Simpson apparently didnt, however, for while lying on the ground, he fisted the ball away from Collinss feet over the bye-line. The referee apparently didnt see it and had to consult a linesman. Neither did Dawson see the resultant spot-kick, rammed home by wee right-winger Thomson. And there we were, level again, with less that a quarter to go. Again, the Light Blues surged to the attack. That last spell was almost all Rangers, with a periodical scamper by Thomson, McGrogan or Collins to the other end. We began to think about Wednesdays replay. Again, we were daft. To such a game there had to be a different finish. One minute to go. A swinging cross into Rangers goal from the Killie left. A
