B McPhail 6, 48
Stevenson 72
Match Information
Attendance: 67,000
Referee: W.G. Holburn (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Sixty-five thousand people were at Ibrox Park yesterday. They had come to see a game of football between the two recognised best teams in Scotland; they had come prepared to applaud and cheer all that is recognised as skilful and clever in soccer. I am afraid the big majority went away disappointed. They saw little of the stuff that is calculated to appeal of the finer tastes. Instead, they saw a hard game, a keen game, that was marked more by spoiling tactics and the employment of physical attributes than anything else. The ninety minutes at Ibrox yesterday were definitely not productive of the pure football expected of two teams occupying such prominent places in the sport as Rangers and Motherwell. I have said that the big crowd came to cheer and applaud. Most of them stayed to howl anger, and they directed their vocal dissent at Ellis, who was making his reappearance in the game after serval weeks absence owing to injury. Ellis is an interesting study. There is no man more criticised outside of Fir Park than the hard-going, devil-may-care Ben, and it was amply proved yesterday that the Ibrox following have little love for him. Every time he went into the tackle, he stepped in to the accompaniment on one huge yell. This reach crescendo when, in the second half, his boot came in contact with Flemingss head. I think indeed, I am sure that Ellis had no intention of injuring Fleming, but I must say that the Welshman must tone down his style. He appears to me to be on the reckless side, his anxiety to clear his territory making him careless about how he achieves it. He might easily have caused serious injury to a player than whom there is none fairer. Ellis seemed to me to be not properly tuned-up. He did not play like a fit man, and throughout the game he was guessing a lot, so far as Main was concerned. The Rangers winger frequently had him on toast. Ellis, by reason of his recklessness, was one of the chief figures of the game. The two others were Fleming and Stevenson. Fleming is a game fellow. That is not a belief recently born in my mind. I mention it now because it was definitely established here. There is no doubt that he was badly shaken by the tactics of Ellis, but he returned to the field to carry on as stout-heartedly as before and scored a couple of goals when very hard pressed to get his foot to the ball. All through he played up heroically, always willing to take a chance, always keen to harass those opposed to him. Stevensons swaying body and his twinkling feet provided us with delightful football. Frequently during the course of the game when spoliation and nothing else was on view, I wished that the ball would go tot Stevenson, so that we could be provided with that artistry for which we had attended the game. His two goals were lovely efforts. For the first, he himself did the leading-up work; for the second he put in the finishing touch in the easy manner of the master. Rangers deserved to win. Let us have no doubts on that score, although I do think that the game might have taken a different complexion had Ogilvie and Ferrier been in the Motherwell front line. Dowall is the Fir Parkers utility man, and as such he never played above his class on the left touch-line. On the other side of the field, despite the fact that he was the man who had centred the ball from which Stevenson scored, Wyllie was seldom seen as an effective force. McDonald had him placed, although Whitey became over-confident and as a result made two errors that led indirectly to two goals. Motherwell, early on, commenced the exploitation of the off-side rule and they carried it out till the end. It was quite a common thing to hear one or other of the Fir Park defenders shout All out Boys, and the rear lines stepped forward to play two or more Rangers onto an off-side position. The Light Blues apparently had only one answer, and that was to depend on Motherwell making a mistake going All out, Boys, at the wrong time. This actually happened, and it led to a couple of goals. The first, from McPhail six minutes after the start, was scored while the entire Motherwell defence stood in what, no doubt, was a pre-arranged formation, appealing for offside. Brown passed to McPhail, who indulged in a quick exchange of the ball with Fleming. The inside left was ultimately left in possession. As the ball went to him from the foot of Fleming, Motherwells defenders Steeped out. But they did so far too late and a second is a long time in such circumstances and McPhail was allowed to turn in on goal and shoot past Robertson. That goal gave Rangers a half-time lead. For the major part of this half they were on top. At half-time I formed the opinion that Rangers did not look like winning. There was a strength about Rangers that was lacking in the other fellows, and a cohesion that made for confidence. The second goal came shortly after the resumption. McPhail sent out to Main who shot against the upright. McPhail dashing in, fastened on and left go. Stevenson was the next to find the net. He had one of his runs and passed to Wyllie. The winger crossed, there was a bit of see-saw stud in front of Dawson before the ball again landed at Stevensons right foot, and he drove into the net from twenty yards. It was following this that Fleming brought delight to the hearts of the Rangers followers. There was considerable sympathy for him, as the result of the incident between him and Ellis, and it was given full voice when he went through to score, after being strongly tackled. When he repeated the dose a few minutes later, the cheer must have been heard in Paisley. Just on the final whistle, Stevensons right foot again smashed the ball past Dawson. He took the ball on the drop and Jerry had no chance
