J Smith 6, 26
A Venters 32, 78
Hendry 70
Match Information
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: P Craigmyle (Aberdeen)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Have a look at our new goalkeeper. Hes dandy. Aye, hell be another Jerry Dawson one day, remarked a Kilmarnock friend as I made my way to Ibrox. He referred to Hunter, the young fellow signed on from Kilsyth Emmet. With twenty minutes away, I was glad my friend was unable to make the trip. That lad between the Rigby Park sticks was as nervous as my Aunt Ann on ice-skates! I felt sorry for him. What an ordeal, I thought. The youngsters spirit will be broken. I had done him an injustice. After the loss of the third goal, which I felt he should have prevented, this apparently timid young man rose to the heights of brilliant goalkeeping. He wasnt all grace, Ill admit, but by sheer courage and coolness he defied the dominant Rangers forwards for longer than I thought possible. I even saw one staid I wont say blasé Pressman rise to his feet and cheer him! But nothing Hunter was capable of doing could stop the flashing shrewdness, poise and positioning, Rangers were the dictators. Mind you, there was undoubted cleverness in many of Kilmarnocks advances, but it isnt a difficult matter explaining why they achieved so little. It all revolved around the plan of the half-backs. Whereas Jamie Smith and his wily henchmen could depend on the middlemen being up with them, adding weight to an offensive, the Rugby Park half-backs made the fatal mistake of accepting their job as finished once they had turned the game and their colleagues were raging towards Dawson. Long before the end it was as plain as a pikestaff that such a plan was useless. In the first place, Gray and Winning, although often worried by the rhythmic moves of the sprightly Ayrshire front-rankers, made them take a back seat by their intuition in sensing where danger would strike and the slickness with which they struck first. It did not end there. Time and again, when that line of blue went forward so like the old days you could have drawn a straight line over their heads George Brown and McKillop were by their side, scheming and manoeuvring to the downfall of the Killie defence. Leslie, Milloy and McClure faced this solid phalanx with grim determination, but it was all so hopeless. Jamie Smith would be my centre against Ireland on this exhibition. The bewildering footwork of the Man Mountain, his intelligence and dash made him a leader to be feared. And what of Kinnear? We have been searching for such a winger fast, adventurous, nimble and completely indifferent to a bad break. And he can hit them! Venters was fitful, but he was there to send two past Hunter, and the longer the game went the more alive and alert did be become. You want to know about McPhail. Big Bobs marksmanship has been at fault of late, but his coaching of Fiddes, his far-flung passes and dynamic bursts were such that I would have had a wave of uncertainty had I bee opposed to him. George Robertson, I write as the start of the Rugby Park intermediate division. McClure never flinched and nobly tackled Smith, but he had not the inventive ideas in construction of Robertson. And in front, Hendry, making his first appearance in the League team this season was one who could finish. The champions registered three of their goals in the first half. The first, by Smith in 12 minutes, was the outcome of an adroit header to him by McPhail. Smith headed the next 25 minutes, again the reward of a beautifully engineered movement. Six minutes later Venters shot the third which passed below Hunters body rather simply. When Hendry, revealing excellent presence of mid, cracked the ball over Dawsons head 25 minutes after the restart, there was a faint chance that we would see a full-blooded finish. Venters soon knocked such notions out of our heads!
