Hay 7
B McPhail 12, 45, 54
Missed Penalties
B McPhail pen miss xx
Match Information
Attendance: 16,000
Referee: R.G. Benzie (Irvine)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Third Lanark started this game as if they were out to advertise the champagne air of Cathkin. Briskness and confidence simply radiated from the red jerseys. We are the boys foe pep and poise they might have chanted. Their vivacity redoubled when Hay scored in the ninth minute; it was but little diminished when Smith equalised in the twentieth; and there was vim and vigour still on tap when McPhail gave Rangers the lead just before the interval. But alackaday! the half-time lemon must have soured their spirit. Before the second period had gone very far, the Warriors were wabbit and worried men. Their play, earlier full of alertness and resource, became a series of desperate expedients, and the points were obviously as good as in the Ibrox bag. It was a sad falling-off, whether due to lemon-juice or to the fact that after the turn-round the Light Blue combination clicked into shape. Right from the start, Brown had been conspicuous for his judicious forcing play, mostly by diagonal passes to the right. After the interval, Kennedy took a leaf from the masters book, and between them they threw Thirds on the defensive practically all the time. Gray and Cheyne moved up to tighten the pressure at every opportunity, and it was largely due to the diehard defence of Carabine, Denmark and Muir that the eager Rangers raiders added no more than one goal to their kill. Play opened with some activity on the Rangers left, but in the ninth minute, Milne smacked the ball between the Ibrox backs. Hay flashed through with it and drove hard into the roof of the net. Two minutes later, Milne and Hay nearly repeated this performance, but good work by Gray baulked the centre in time. Spurred on by imploring wails of Come away, Rangers! from the terracing, the Light Blues put on a spurt, but all their efforts went haywire until McPhail barged in to chest the ball down and hook it past Muir. Denmark claimed that the ball was handled, but Referee Benzie said No! At the other end, Cheyne stopped Milne just in time to let Dawson scramble the ball clear, then Rangers swooped again. Main Venters Main Kinnear McPhail was the passing pattern, and with a rousing twenty-yard wallop into the net the inside-left completed a delightful movement. But as the ball whizzed goalward the whistle went for offside against Smith. Dawson, a minute later, had to look as lively as a nudist in a nettle-clump to stop dangerous shot from Hay, Gallacher and Howe. In the forty-fifth minute, McPhail lashed in a swerving drive which curled away from Muirs clutching hands into the side curtains. Seven minutes after the restart, Smith drew the Cathkin defence and slung the ball out to Main. Kinnear met the wingers prompt centre and beat Muir with an unstoppable slam at close range. There were few high lights thereafter. McPhail popped a penalty kick past, Hay and Milne shot wildly at the other end, and Muir brought off a great one-handed save from McPhail after the latter had run clear from midfield with the ball at his toes. Rangers, once they settled, were well up to standard. McKillop and Main were the weakest members of the eleven, and Kennedy was much happier in attack than in defence. Denmark starred for Third Lanark, covering up Hamiltons positional slips time and again apart from attending most capably to his own job. Muir, Carabine, Howe and Hay did as much as could be expected of them. The wing half-backs began well but got rattled towards the end. Gallacher was in one of his exasperating hang-on-till-they-stop-me moods and was of little value to his winger. McPhail missed a second half penalty
