Thomson 51
Match Information
Attendance: 61,000
Referee: P Craigmyle (Aberdeen)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
The big thing happened at Celtic Park. St Mirren beat the Rangers by the only goal of a desperately keen game. The favourites hailed from Ibrox Park, but the black-and-white brigade from Paisley knocked the Light Blues out of the Scottish Cup in a manner that left no dubiety as to which team was the better side. Paisley’s team was the more wholehearted lot. The foundation of their success was laid by Morrison, McDonald and Summers at half-back. This hard-working trio covered their backs, kept their forwards going and broke up the combination of the Rangers’ attack in a style I never saw them equal. There was a defiant challenge from this section of the victorious team that defied comparison and made for a triumph which carried the Saints into the Cup Final for the second time in their career. Once again St Mirren will meet the Celtic in the culminating struggle for the cherished emblem of Scottish Football. Hope runs high in Paisley that another Renfrewshire club will gain lasting fame ere the season runs to a close. I saw the Rangers win through in their Cup struggles at Falkirk and Greenock in the two previous rounds of the competition. Even without Tom Cairns at Falkirk, and when they had him out against the Morton, the Rangers’ attack was such as to encourage the hope that an Ibrox team, in spite of its blackest record for many years, would add lustre to fading brightness, and win distinction by carrying off the blue riband of out national game. For twenty-three years the Light Blues have been denied the glory of winning the Cup, often when the brilliance of their achievements in the League Championship tournament presaged their triumph. “There is no luck for Rangers in the Scottish Cup!” was the parrot cry of their followers in the hour of failure. Luck played no part in the latest try-out of the Light Blues. St Mirren dominated the play in the first half of the game, and except in the closing fifteen minutes of the second half, when a spirited rally by a dispirited and disjoined attack almost forced a replay the major pressing and nearly all the shooting were achieved by opponents who refused to strike their flag. The chance McKay missed to snatch an equalising goal was one of the best that cropped up in the game. He was clean through, with only Bradford to best. He swerved slightly to the right. Bradford saved his stingless shot, and the ball went off the goalkeeper for a corner. One singular feature of the game was the complete eclipse of the Rangers inside game. Cunningham is usually their hardest shot and is a frequent scorer. Andy emerged from this semi-final without ever once having tested the opposing goalkeeper. The Rangers helped to their own defeat by the neglect of the forwards to speed themselves for attack. They lay too far back and were seldom prepared to come to the assistance of Fleming when the ball was punted forward for the centre to head to one side or the other when he was either covered by Summers or on of the backs. Only Alan Morton of the others kept to position. The left winger opened with a dazzle of brilliance against Findlay. Alan had the first two runs of the match, but the ball was lively, and Findlay took the only way of stopping him by methods that were not always according to cricket. There were two backs who never had a foul awarded against them in this red-hot struggle, when knocks and fouls were of frequent occurrence. One was Gray on the Rangers side, and the other was Newbiggin. These men were great defenders. James Hamilton saved the Rangers by his vigorous daring on three occasions, and once nearing the close, when he popped under the bar to save a drive from Thomson when Tom Hamilton was far out lying on the ground., where he had made a double save. The Rangers had never lost a scoring chance like that one. James Hamilton’s best work was seen in the first half, but when Morgan began to pull him out and round him more freely than he had done, Newbiggin beat him for tactical defence and sureness all through the piece. The goal that brought joy to Paisley and disappointment to the Rangers was the result of a free kick given against Hamilton when the second half had gone fully six minutes. The ball swung out to the left, there was a scrimmage in front of goal, and Thomson came on the scene to clinch the defeat of Tom Hamilton, who had not the ghost of a chance to avert the disaster. It was appropriate that the oldest player in the st Mirren team should have had the honour. Thomson has proved a great and consistent outside left in the Paisley team and has kept his place against a younger generation of men who have come along to challenge him for a position he has made his own. The Rangers fell away after the loss of this goal. Arthur Dixon did his utmost to steady them by covering both sides of the defence against the recurring raids of the St Mirren men, as well as by driving the ball ahead. The Ibrox forwards could not profit by the strategy or determined work of a defence that was overweighted. They had always to much ground to cover, and above and beyond everything else the relentless tackling and mastery of the Paisley half-backs took what sting was left in them. I have seen the st Mirren teams from the Westmarch days. One recalls Greenlees, Bruce and McAvoy as a trio of outstanding merit. The strength and consistency of this trio of celebrated players was the joy of Paisley for many years. The men who served the Saints yesterday at Parkhead in this wonderful game of St Mirren assertiveness equalled for sureness of tackling power and covering-up tactics any three half-backs the club ever had. The wing halfs broke the Rangers’ wing combination, and Summers made the Rangers inside forwards to appear a very moderate company. I saw nothing in the control of the game by the referee that influenced the result. The Rangers had their own bad play to account for their eclipse. Their half-backs did not rise to the standard of the St Mirren men, and their forwards lost all sense of developing combination by hanging back. Four of them simply allowed themselves to be dominated by a defence that rose to excel its best form of the season until it was too late to assert the fighting spirit of the team. Tom Hamilton kept a fine goal for them, and Dixon was their defender out of goal. Gray was the better back, but never so effective as either of the St Mirren pair. Bradford had few shots to save, but he was daring on the few occasions Morton or Fleming tried to hustle into conceding a goal. The St Mirren forwards put lots of vim into their raids and McCrae proved a dashing and dangerous leader. Howieson stood up well to his partner’s co-operation against a rushing defender, and like McCrae, Gebbie and Thomson, he had more shots than all the Rangers’ forwards could total. Gebbie filled Gillies’ place well, and Morgan improved and opened out with greater confidence the longer the game proceeded. The Rangers missed Tom Cairns badly. Without him the attack was feckless, and never got together. There was a row among the orange and blue partisans on the eastern terraces when the second half was twenty minutes gone. Many of the spectators leapt the barriers and invaded the enclosure for safety. An imposing body of police promptly restored order. Mr Craigmyle suspended the play until the affair blew cold
