A Cunningham 17
S Archibald pen 86
Match Information
Attendance: 20,000
Referee: R.J. Kelso (Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Whew! What a fright the Rangers must have got. I hasten to pay tribute to the defeated Saints. Their pay was a revelation. First, their defence fought it out until their good example inspired the forwards and then we saw a keen, far, rousing struggle that set the crowd humming. Cairns and Cunningham had the opening goal between then after 17 minutes. Lavery helped the ball into the net, too – a curious goal altogether, and one that had a little bit of bad luck about it for the Saints. At this period, Rangers forwards were going well, showing a nice, click, and moving freely. But Lavery and Reid and Pringle did splendid work in countering them, and O’Hagan got every possible chance to deal with the shots. Saints’ forwards were not idle, however. Repeatedly they combined smartly in on the Rangers defence, and once Robb barely saved from Thomson at the expense of a corner, while Pringle made a post shiver with a great drive. The second half was even more exhilarating. After Rangers had threatened to take a grip of their opponents, and had missed one or two good scoring chances, the visitors blossomed out. The Rangers half-backs could not now hold the rival forwards, and both Manderson and McQueen had to every every ounce of energy to keep Robb from being overcome. Once the goalkeeper failed to gather the ball from a pass back by clubmate Bert, and it was touch and go from Stewart scoring. Of course, the Rangers forwards were having a say in things, also, but though Morton made many sweeping runs and got his centres over well, there was always something lacking in the finishing of the others. About four minutes from the end, a Bowie shot – spooned and doing no damage – was handled by a Saints defender, Archibald converted the penalty kick, and it was all over, although just on time Cunningham nearly was through again. St Mirren will climb rapidly of they can command the same form. They were sound in the rear and clever right across the front line. Pringle was a tower of strength. Rangers played some excellent football, but the forwards still failed in front of goal. Cairns and Morton played their best game together, I should say, and Archibald did a lot of things really well. The half-backs had a busy afternoon. McQueen recovered well
