Thornton 6, 8
Harrison 17
Match Information
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: D.F. Reilly (Port Glasgow)
Matchday: Saturday
Match Trivia
If someone tells you Rangers won their first League match of the year because they had a fierce wind at their backs in the first half and struck three times, dont believe him. They won because they were the better team. There was nothing else to it. Indeed, the entire flow of the game is easily explained. Nothing intricate about it unless it was Third Lanarks vain search to find the lost piece of the jigsaw puzzle the forward set themselves. Even with the elements in their favour, Third never appealed to me as having the cunning or positional intelligence success demanded. It was a lop-sided, scrappy affair. Here we had Simpson and Mason moving in delightful fashion, the young inside right sending a message with every pass. And his partner, cool and astute, ready and able to join with him in all his thoughts. My praise must cease. Dewar was ill at ease, and his keenness to prove his worth was his very undoing. Not only so, but Kennedy and Kinnaird were an unenterprising duo gripped and subdued by that dependable of defenders, Dougie Gray, and the quick-striking McKillop, who did grand work after the turn. Ill put it this way. If the Cathkin attack had been half as far-seeing and alive as their half-backs and backs, this would have become a throbbing, grim struggle, for there as goodness in the Third team. But it was strangled of initiative by the weaknesses of which I have told you. Rangers are happier. They must be. There were times when I caught flashes of the genius that once thrilled us. It wasnt there all the time, mind you, but thinking of the vicissitudes since November, they could not but feel comforted. Bigg Jimmy Smith, without at any time the master of the finest back afield, Carabine, had the Crosshill defenders in a state of concern in the first half. And how immaculate is Thornton. The more I see of him, the more I am convinced he is going to become one of the greatest personalities in the game. Alec Venters wrought harder than any man of view. And how unlucky was he in not twice locating the net. Only a gust of wind swinging the ball round a post spoiled him. Harrison stuck it manfully, and I write of Main that without a shadow of doubt he is the best outside right on the Ibrox staff. No middleman afield measured to George Browns standard. He showed how to beat the elements, his grace and innate skill making him supreme among some excellent half-backs. Now Ill tell you of the goals. As you know, Rangers notched their three in the first half, and two of them in the first nine minutes through Thornton. The first he brilliantly headed from a judicious Smith centre in the seventh minute. The second was a masterpiece of judgment. Advancing on Muir, he met the ball on the drop, and with the rhythm of a ballet dancer, glided it away from the goalkeeper into the net. Harrison hit the third, running through unchallenged and scoring at the second attempt.
