Murray 25
B McPhail 83
Match Information
Attendance: 88,000
Referee: P Craigmyle (Aberdeen)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Let there be no doubts on the matter. Rangers won this game on their merits. They were the superior team, superior in tactics, in actual football skill, and in finishing power. After seeing the League game at Ibrox between the two teams, I had the temerity to prophesy that I had a sneaking fancy for Rangers again winning the League Championship. Rangers deserve to do so, for they are a superior lot to Motherwell, their only rivals for the honour. It is all very well saying it is good for the honours to go round. Only a person with the mental calibre of a nit would suggest otherwise, but my comparison of the ability of Rangers and Motherwell suggests that the Lanarkshire team would be in a false position if they finished ahead of the Light Blues. The game did not rise to the heights that the guy Ballyhoo suggested it would. Neither did it fall to the uninteresting level of many recent big games. It was a sort of half way between affair. Perhaps the best part of the game, from the point of view of the spectator without bias, was the twenty minutes preceding the scoring of Rangers second goal. In that period Motherwell had scoring chances, or perhaps I should say Stevenson had scoring chances, but his shooting was weak and very much off the target. And now that I have introduced the name of Stevenson, let me hasten to write the name of McPhail, I believe there were present at the game representative of the committee responsible for the selection of Scotlands team for Wembley. I do not profess to know who they were watching, but if they were on the look-out for an inside-left, and they were considering the respective claims of Stevenson and McPhail, then they must, without any possible shadow of a doubt, have left Ibrox with the definite view that the man for them is McPhail. Wot a ply-er! Those words which I heard from a son of Cockaigne years ago at White Hart Lane, when Dimmock was galloping up the line, came back to me as in watched McPhail yesterday. He simply revelled in the glue of the ground, and this big, strong fellow was the star of the game. His stamina is amazing, for at the end of the game he seemed as strong as when he started. He and Morton, by their display, made the famous Stevenson-Ferrier wing look common clay in comparison. It was always from Rangers left that most of the Light Blues attacks started, and it was almost always from Rangers left that danger threatened. McPhail tackling was superb. He never allowed an opponent to settle if he were within tackling distance and kept on originating movements that led to a heavy gun offensive. There was plenty of variety in his work. He did not make himself altogether a slave to Morton, for when the occasion arose, he slammed a ball unerringly across to Fleming, or grounded it up the centre to English. His shooting too was good. The great difference between the team lay in the fact that the Rangers half backs could make contact with their forwards and Motherwells could not. The passes forward of Wales and Telfer were either short or misdirected, especially those of the former. Wales I have heard, and read, mentioned as a possibility for a place in Scotlands team. I am afraid on his latest showing he must be passed over and that quickly for he never did anything to stamp him worthy of the honour. Telfer was only a shade better, but Craig I do not criticise. He played as strong game, particularly in defence, and it was no fault of his that his side have no further interest in the cup. Ellis and Dowell were quite good backs but there were numerous occasions when they were outwitted. They did not show evidence of sufficient experience to make one feel that they were capable of holding out. Ellis was the better of the two, wuick enough in action, especially in the power of recovery. Apart from one fatal mistake that cost his side the first goal, McClory played well, and hand many fine saves to his credit. The goal he lost he should have saved. Murrays shot from twenty-five yards, he saw all the way. He was in excellent position to save, and he waited on the sphere coming with up-stretched hands. He stopped it, but to the surprise of everyone the ball squirmed from his hands and entered the net just under the bar, while he fell backwards. The ball was a greasy one, but that does not altogether exonerate the goalkeeper, who could not have been holding his hands properly. And now we come to the forwards. Only for twenty minutes did they do their stuff in the outfield in the manner expected but then they failed near goal. During the rest of the game, they sort of mucked about the garden, half hoping that the ball would come their way, or messing things up when it did. Murdoch and Ferrier were seldom seen. Only once did Murdoch do anything worth recording, and that was the tricking of McAulay on the touchline in the second half. There was a timidity about Murdochs work I decidedly did not like. Stevenson held on to the ball far too long, and too often he was dispossessed or forced into a position when his pass was perforce, a bad one. He did not have the strength to shake off a tackle as McPhail could. Young McMenemy was one who tried to open up the game, but he was sometimes as bit unlucky. Perhaps he would have been better you have had a go at goal himself than have it to someone else. The more I see of McFadyen the more I wonder how he has goal all the goals that are to his credit. Maybe Mac did not get the ball to his liking, but he never once showed himself capable of getting the ball under control and making scoring position for himself. He failed, when in the way to do so, to link his line together. He was disappointing. About Rangers, there is only one or two things I want to say. The first is that the team played with cohesion all through, and it was a relief to find that they did not lie back on defence after taking the lead. Every man played his part well, and I pick out Murray for a special word of praise for the splendid manner in which he came through a bit of an ordeal. Pitchforked into a team out of position, and alongside a partner who seems to be adopting the role of handy-man, he showed a cool brain and a confident demeanour, and he achieved fame by inspiring his colleagues with a goal. I liked Murray, and I liked him chiefly because of the fact that he tries to play football, not airball. His transfers are on the ground, and that is a most important thing. During the course of the game there were many exciting goal incidents, and the first came in the very first minute when Morton, who, however, was in an offside position, brought the ball down to the foot of the onrushing McPhail who shot past. It would have been hard luck on Motherwell if they had lost a goal, as they looked like doing. Next McFadyen hooked a Murdoch cross just past when Simpson was hanging on to him, and a minute or so later English made McClory dive for a low, slanting shot which the keeper stopped at the foot of his right-hand upright. The game went swinging on its way, with Rangers showing more power and better understanding. After twenty-five minutes Murray scored the goal, I have described, and for a short spell Motherwell made an effect to get on equal terms again. Rangers opened the second half attacking, and during that period we were treated to some delightful work by Morton on the touch-line. He beat the opposition wot jolt-time verve, but twice I thought he should have crossed instead of attempting to walk in on goal. On one occasion he made McClory stop a hot one, fired from point-blank range. It was possible for him to score then, but another time he should have slipped the ball into the centre, where McPhail and English were waiting in front of a wide-open goal. More Motherwell offensive, and for a time it looked as if they would get on terms of equality, but bad finishing nullified their other work, although one could not but feel a certain a measure of sympathy for Stevenson when one particular shot went past with Hamilton nowhere. But even during this, their worst, period Rangers never gave the impression of losing the lead, and they only justified expectations when, seven minutes from the end, they increased their advantage. Every time Rangers went upfield they looked dangerous. On this occasion the danger materialised. McPhail started the business. In midfield he got possession, and after beating an opponent he swung the ball out to Fleming, who crossed it on the run. McPhail followed the ball all the way, and from twelve yards he met the cross and banged it into the rigging. McClory hadnt the ghost of a chance. Motherwell accepted defeat, and the crows commenced the trek for home. Rangers for the Cup? I should say so
