Bremner 10
McGillivray 27
A Venters 41, 55, 88
Match Information
Attendance: 45,000
Referee: J Horsburgh (Midlothian)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Thrills? Plenty! Pretty soccer? Not so much. Ninety minutes of tearaway, take-it-and-like-it football, and, oh! what a blow to Motherwell in the ninetieth! With the score at 2-2 and the ball travelling from end to end almost with the speed of a tennis rally, it was honours easy and anybodys game. Then Fiddes got clear and ripped in a cross from the right. McClory came out, flung himself full-stretch, got his finger-tips to the ball to push it along the ground in the path of the onrushing Venters. Wham! The inside-rights boot connected and the Ibrox air went all Light Blue. Hats off to Rangers for a plucky fight-back. A consolatory chunk of hard cheese to Motherwell for being robbed of the draw they full earned. Rangers satisfaction in their victory will be tempered by the realisation that their showing was far below the accepted Ibrox standard. Hardly a man in front of Dawson enhanced his reputation. Cheyne, Kennedy and Venters were the pick of the lot. Even Brown, blond barrier to so many ambitious forwards, cunning breaker-up and subtle spreader of play, was in the so-so class with the others. But the spirit was there, and the will to win. Venters can thank McClory for his hat-trick. The three lapses which marred the Motherwell keepers display were all alike and all fatal. Each was a case of pushing the ball away in situations which demanded safety-first methods. Venters was there to take advantage of each feeble clearance. The man of the match was Bremner, who played an inspired game in attack, ably partnered by MacFadyen. These two, with the not-quite-so-effective McGillivray, were a striking force which gave the Rangers defence something to remember. Weakness on both wings, however, hampered the thrust of the Fir Park line. Backs and half-backs were sound, Ellis particularly so. Free open raiding by Motherwell increased the rangers goals agst. Total by 200 per cent, in the first half-hour! In the eleventh minute, McGillvray dropped an oblique pass to MacFadyen who with his back to Dawson, nodded the ball back to Bremner. The inside-rights head-high drive flashed past Dawson at bullet speed. Some fifteen minutes later, MacFayden repeated the nod-back trick with a lob from Wales. This time it was McGillivray who met it on the bounce to lash a terrific shot into the roof of the net. Just before the interval, Rangers still largely on the defensive, reduced the leeway. McClory, jumping out to a high free from Fiddes, failed to get the ball entirely clear. Smith headed towards goal and Venters, dashing in, made siccar. Ten minutes after the turn-round, following a Kinnear crasher against the upright, McClory pushed out a softish shot from Smith. Venters popped in against. All square! It was raid and counter-raid after that, with both sides chucking chances away through over -eagerness. Then the last hectic minute. Victory and defeat!
