Gordon 42
W Reid >45, xx
Match Information
Attendance: 6,000
Referee: H Humphrey (Maryhill)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
Here’s a curious thing. Nowadays when Third Lanark go into a game with Rangers they are accompanied by an Evil Genius – a Little Devil, some would call it, but by any other name its influence would be the same. It prevents Third Lanark doing the essential thing at the crucial moment. Watching them manufacture some prime scoring openings in the game at Ibrox, and noting with what amazing facility they threw them away. I instinctively recalled the Glasgow Cup final of last season. That, doubtless, is a core point with the Cathkin club, and least said soonest mended. But if a line of forwards will not accept the chances when they are strewn at their feet, if they refuse to make hay when the sun shines, they are asking for defeat as plainly as actions can talk. More than that, they deserve defeat. All that is left to Third Lanark is to lay the blame on the Evil Genius. Others have tried to shift the blame in a similar way. We must make allowance for the worrying effect or a strong west wind, which, though favouring Third Lanark in the first half, puzzled even them at times, especially when controlling the ball for a shot. The fact, however, remains that openings were missed that ought not to have been missed had the marksmanship been half as good as was shown from the middle of September to the end of October. I dwell on this feature of the game because to me it seemed that had Third Lanark done themselves justice in the early part of the game, they would have made a much closer match of it afterwards, and finished a better and a more successful side. As it was, Rangers, after enjoying several ‘lives,’ got hold of a game that, though short of brilliant, was good enough first to draw the sting out of the opposition attack, and then to assert a positive superiority. In the end Rangers were absolutely sound winners. It was a good game considering the conditions; it would have been much better had Third Lanark had a man who could ‘lay a gun.’ When Third Lanark won the toss and sailed away with the wind like a full-rigger, I thought they were going to make ‘that hay.’ JW Smith, showing some nice touches on the way through, let go a rare shot, and the ball beat Lock and hit the bar. That was bad luck for Smith as much as anything. But the Third Lanark forwards were soon back again. The two Smiths kept leading in, and their shooting was quite good until each, in turn, secured what looked like unmissable chances. But they missed them. But it was not always so. In time the Rangers’ half-backs and Craig also in especial degree, took a big hand in affairs, and as the forwards responded pretty well, it became the turn of the Third Lanark defence to show their metal, It proved good metal in parts, though at times there was a tendency for the backs and half-backs to get in each other’s way. We had got to within eight minutes of the interval without either team being able to make much of an impression. Then Bennett cut in from the line and shot. Brownlie did not get the ball properly away, and a corner resulting. Bennett placed it well and Gordon, getting a return, shot swiftly into the net. Brownlie appealed for offside against Reid or Bowie. They were close to him certainly, but I would not care to say that they were actually offside. That was the only goal of this half. Rangers never looked back afterwards. Eighteen minutes after restarting Paterson carried the ball along and passed to Cairns, who made a cut for goal, and passes to Reid, who was following up hard. The centre swept the ball in on the run, and rose over Brownlie’s head and hit the roof of the netting. Having tasted blood, Reid went for two long ‘shriekers’ that missed by very little. At this time, Swift was off the field, and Brown playing left-half with Hannah in Swift’s place. Cairns, full of life and dash as usual, was almost through in a single-handed burst, and both of the Smiths tried in a similar way to beat the Rangers’ defence. Once from a run and centre by JW Smith, the other one called James found both Kelso and Lock so kind as to leave him as open goal. How the Cathkin centre managed to get the ball over the bar I leave it to him to say. Even with Swift on again Third Lanark did not stay the course. Of combination among the forward there was now next to none, and the defence came in for a severe gruelling, the Rangers’ half-backs all urging on their forwards to an attack that eventually procured a third goal with seven minutes to go. Gordon, who had come along as much of a forward as a half, and who was shooting at every chances, caused Brownlie to drop one, Cairns – eager as usual – jumped in and hooked the ball towards the other end of the goal. I believe the ball would have gone through, but Reid, to make certain, went after it and was the actual scorer, for Brownlie was unable to forestall him. I could not be severely critical of men playing in such a wind. One felt like praising the good points and overlooking the bad ones. Both Lock and Brownlie were apparently on edge to judge the effect of the wind on shots, and their play sometimes suffered in crispness. Brownlie had the harder commission because he was not so well covered by the men in front. Still, even at that, he has done better. Craig put his experience to good account. He was seldom wrong with his anticipation, and no back played through the game so consistently. Kelso had not much close tackling to do, but he kicked pretty well. Lennon, if not so sure as usual, held Paterson well until late in the game. Orr was not the old Robert O, but how could he? At half-back Rangers were distinctly superior, and that, of course, reacted on the forwards. Pursell was placing the ball with nicer judgment than I have ever seen him do. Now I think we are going to see him develop in that direction. If I am correct, he will yet be all that his Ibrox sponsors hoped of him. Brown was neat and effective, and Gordon both backward and forward by turns. Third’s halfs were workers all the time, but they did not last the game so well as their rivals. In the Rangers; forwards line, I liked the spirited work of Cairns. He had a big say in two of the goals, and was always on the trail. While the line, as a whole, played well enough to win, it was by no means what the doctor ordered. Bowie was too often on the left wing for a right winger, even if he was finding something to do there. Bennett made good use of the passes he got when he was not left with too much running to do. No one expects him to spank along the line as he used to do. Paterson was not at his best, nor was Reid until late in the game, when he worried the Cathkin defence terribly. The two Smiths were the men who seemed capable of doing most for Third Lanark, and yet they missed most. There was combination of a sort in the vanguard, but it was not lasting, and it was always patchy. I cannot understand the declension of Mountford. You would almost imagine he had lost confidence in himself, which is the worst of all troubles
