Waddell 72
Henderson 74
Match Information
Attendance: 36,533
Referee:
Match Trivia
In a thrilling finish Rangers won this Charity Cup semi-final by a head. The head of King George on the referees penny. It seems all wrong two teams should take their turn battling against a strong Hampden wind; should strive might and main to score goals; should keep it up right to the end of the 90 minutes then find the mere toss of a coin decide the winners. It seemed wrong, too the toss should favour Rangers. The Ibrox outfit werent a patch on the side which beat Celtic on Wednesday night. Third Lanark, by contrast, showed us just, how entertaining they can be now theyre rid of relegation nerves. Actually, my final tally showed that, although the teams were level in goals, Thirds were well ahead on points. The sprightliness of the Cathkin boys I trace back to the standard set by their half-backs. It may sound unreal, yet it is a fact too on this showing Adams, Samuels and Aitken were a much better line than McColl, Woodburn and Cox. These three Thirds lads harnessed the wind perfectly in the first half and sent up sufficient inviting balls for the game to be won four times over. But oh, dear, those Cathkin forwards! Even allowing for the immense defensive display of Brown, Young and Shaw someone should have shown some guile and engineered a loophole. At the interval, I thought Thirds were beaten. Having seen Rangers pile then on at Cathlin a fortnight ago, I reckoned we were now in for a similar procession. Had McColl and Cox been able to serve us the same sort of passes as Adam and Aitken, it would have happened, too. But somehow or other this usually reliable pair kept finding red jerseys with their final passes. For a spell we had actually George Young and Jock Shaw as the lads supplying the ammunition for the forwards. Marshall and Hubbard were having anything but a distinguished tome on the left, yet it was from here Rangers opened the scoring. A good goal it was too! Although Waddell was the actual scorer, it was Marshalls goal. From 20 yards the inside-left hit a shot which would have found a proud place among Bob McPhails souvenirs. Petrie was beaten to the wide. The ball crashed against the underside of the crossbar and came down about four yards out. There was Waddell, in perfect position, to tap it home. Within a couple of minutes Thirds were level. Bradley cantered up the wing and squared to Aitken. Big George lobbed the ball into goal. One of those hanging, nasty lobs detested by goalkeepers. Brown, who had gripped everything so far in immaculate fashion, half-punched, half-palmed this one. Henderson gathered the ball about 12 yards out, and smacked home a real beauty. This was just what the doctor ordered. The game sprang to life. Down Rangers left, Hubbard had one, two, three chances to clip home the winner. But on each occasion, he committed the unforgiveable touch-line sin of forcing the ball past the NEAR post. But it was at the other end we had the nearest of all near things. A clever bit of play by Henderson found him clean through. Not only did his shot go like a bullet, but it was on target. We saw Bobby Browns body do some sort of fantastic twist like an electric eel. We saw his two arms shoot out. We saw this 12-yard thunderbolt held tightly in Bobbys hands, as if in a vice. The shot of the day. The save of the season. Henderson was easily Thirds best forward afield. Otherwise, it just wasnt a game to be remembered by Forward play. Thirds should be happy, knowing now what this half-back line really can do. I dont imagine Rangers will be over-perturbed because their line was below par for once. Rangers rear threesome again took the honours for defensive play, Brown, Young and Shaw what a triumvirate. So many are ready to say Jock Shaw is showing signs of wear and tear, but Im dashed if hell give them the opportunity. His intuition about where the ball will land is equalled only by his intuition about whether a penny will turn up heads or tails.
