Thomson 24
Main 48
A Venters 82
Match Information
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: unknown - to be confirmed
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The shades of night were falling fast. As through the ranks of Killie passed. A youth who scampered oer the mud. And hit the leather such a thud! The winning score! Not being so good as Longfellow at this sort of things, we lay aside the harp at this point to explain that the youth was Venters, and that if his glorious solo run and shot didnt dispel the dusk that was making play difficult to follow, it at least lifted the gloom from the hearts of the Ibrox faithful. Eight minutes from time it happened, with the score at one-all and Killies defence hurling back raid after raid by Rangers, a fitting climax to a grand display by the Ibrox inside left, who earlier, had made the opportunity for Mains equaliser. These two were the only impressive figures in the Rangers attack, Drysdale, Fiddes and Gillick developing no punch to speak off. Indeed, the Light Blues as a whole began in very easy-osy fashion, and Kilmarnock were fully due their one-goal lead at half-time. Actually, the Killie forwards got chances enough to have had a handful of goals in hand. It was a different story after the change-round. The Ibrox half-backs buckled to their jib, and repeated storms of attack raged round the Kilmarnock goal. Miller and his backs emerged from these ordeals covered with glaur and glory. The goalkeeper took every conceivable risk and got away with it until that Venters special arrived. Leslie and Milloy tackled and lunged and punted like men inspired. But the breaker-up-in-chief of the Ibrox raids was Tom Smith, who found time to tie up Drysdale and help his side-kickers, too. Forward, Kilmarnock were a patchy lot, only Thomson and Williamson striking a consistent game. Play ran evenly for the first half-hour, with Rangers playing cool and somewhat over-studied football, and Killie keeping their end up by cruder but just as effective methods. Robertson and Roberts missed likely chances at Dawsons end, and Miller stopped dangerous tries by Main and Venters. On one occasion the ball travelled right along the Rangers line from wing to wing and back again before Main let go a hard drive which Miller punched away. Beattie earned a groan when, well-placed, he let a pass from Robertson go astray, and Roberts, a little later, met a cross from Thomson, steadied the ball and then hooked it high over the bar from twelve yards out. Half-a-minute before the interval whistle, Beattie cut out to the left and slammed the ball hard and low across goal. Thomson, tearing in from the wing, met it first-time with an unstoppable shot, which gave Dawson no earthly. Rangers went all out on the resumption. In the third minute, Venters bunching the defence on the left with an involved dribble, finished by slinging the ball over to the right. Miller dashed out of goal to intercept but was impeded by his backs. Main met the ball and, although Smith sprang into the empty goal, he could do nothing to stop the wingers slam into the roof of the net. Rangers held the whop hand until the end, although Kilmarnock broke away time and again in dangerous fashion. For a long time, it looked as if Rangers lacked the thrust to pierce the stout defence of Smith and Co, but at last Venters, as has been described, made a one-man job of it
