McIntyre
Match Information
Attendance: 30,000
Referee: J Lyons (Hamilton)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Half an hour before the start of the Rangers-Morton battle I ran against Mr RR Cochran in the Ibrox pavilion. The usually chirpy Cappielow manager was a trifle glum. “Stanley (Seymour) is in bed,” was his greeting, “and Gourlay is having his knee attended to. But Jamie will just need to play – there’s nothing else for it. I’ll put Grant on the right along with him, and shift young McNab over to the left – he played there in his juvenile days.” Not a very promising outlook for the Morton, you may well say. Yet they won. How? By an exhibition of determined, stick-at-nothing, dare-devil football, blended now and then by a ray of bright play. And what was of more consequence, they had the greatest bit of good luck of the afternoon. Dame Fortune surely smiled on John McIntyre, as the fickle jade never did before, when, thirteen minutes before the interval, when through on the right and sent across that innocent-looking but all-important short centre, which won the match. I say ‘centre,’ because I am as convinced as ever I was of anything that the old Petershill half-back had absolutely no notion of scoring when the ball left his foot. But there you are! Lock happened to be located too close to the near upright, the ball sailed over his head, and – Rangers were beaten. Before that they themselves had several good opportunities, but their own finishing ineptitude, the smart goalkeeping of Bradford and the resolute and, at times, unorthodox defence of ‘Bill’ Morrison and ‘Jacky’ Wright kept them out. Perhaps their best chance came a quarter of an hour before McIntyre’s success. Scott Duncan’s centre was only partially cleared by Wright, and a fine game was left on for Paterson, as the billiards expects say. But the Cowdenbeath lad was too slow in getting off his mark, and Bradford chipped out and in and saved the situation. Later, Lawson in his eagerness only managed to force a corner when he might have driven home Scott Duncan’s cross, and a similar fate awaited a grand shot by Bennett. Against these Ibrox failures Morton’s most likely opportunities were when Grant nicely eluded Blair to slip the ball past on the wrong side of an upright – it looked as easy to put it in the net again when the same player let go at Lock following a lovely over-the field pass by McLean; and yet again, at the beginning of the second half, when Gourlay, coming on in magnificent fashion, must have had lock beaten all ends up had his shot been a yard or so nearer the centre of the field. While I congratulate Provost McMillan and Morton on their success – the result of the very earnestness of their players – I cannot say that, on the day, they were a great team or even better one than that fielded by the Rangers such as it was. Over the piece, while certain men regaled us with some real good football, the match lacked class. And as very often happens when play doesn’t touch a high standard, the ‘cloven hoof’ steps in. We had far too much of it in this match. Bennett and Gourlay were the victims in the two most glaring cases. Bradford, if he was slow in getting rid if the ball once or twice, was safe in the Greenock goal, and in front of him Morrison was a veritable stone wall. ‘Bill’ seems none the worse for that injury which kept him kicking his heels in enforced idleness for the greater part of the season. Towards the close his grand old head on several occasions came in the way of baulk the eager Rangers of the equaliser. Ormonde I did not fancy until the second half – then he was not much behind him partner. In the middle Wright was ever in the tick of it. He misses several balls, recovered quickly, and hit a great many more. McIntyre, as hard as nails, was a successful sticker, and McLean completed a half-back line which took some getting round. Forward Gourlay was the star: Grant did very well on the right touch-line; Stevenson, while clever enough when in possession, was not thrustful enough; and Parker did nothing of note. The change of position affected the youngster, and the Ashfield-Rangers-Everton centre was ponderous by comparison with his livelier confreres. Lock if deceived by McIntyre’s lob, otherwise did all right; Blair was easily the better Rangers’ back; and Riddell and McKenna were the half-backs I liked most. I am allowing for the fact that Pursell did much hard grafting after the interval. In front the line was almost as ragged as it was the previous week, although Bennett improved on that fairly good showing. Scott Duncan centred a lot of nice balls, and had a good try or two to get one past Bradford, yet I have seen him do better. Cairns was more in the game than at Celtic Park, which is not saying much. But why say more than that the match proved that forwards are wanted at Ibrox – and wanted badly
