Rankin 24
Morgan 36
S Archibald 85
McCrae
Match Information
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: AB Leishman (Falkirk)
Matchday: Tuesday
Match Trivia
Very nearly twelve thousand people had an exciting half-holiday at Love Street. They saw Rangers two goals down after 36 mins, all against the run of the play. They saw Rangers leading 3-2 within five minutes of the ned, and the points apparently as secure as a jewel-box in a Bank of England safe. But the sights didn’t end there, for almost before the echo of the cheers of the Light Blues followers had died away, St Mirren were on level again. That ended it. It was a match worth seeing, full of thrills and punctuated by the unexpected. The Rangers should have won, and won comfortably, on the swing of the play, these is no doubt at all. Two of the goals they lost should never have been surrendered; the other one might have been averted also. On the other hand, all three goals scored by the Ibrox team were the result of dominating attack. But that apart, St Mirren deserve the greatest of credit for showing such a bold front from the first minute to the last. Every man on the side played as if a kingdom depended upon the issue. If mistakes were made in the Rangers’ rear, it can, with certainty, be said that the Paisley forwards were smart enough, and clever enough, to turn them quick and profitable account. On a fast-playing pitch to start with, Rangers opened strongly, and in practically the first minute, Marshall was given a splendid chance by Morton, but the ball seemed to come to him a trifle too high. His shot went high and wide. Meantime the Paisley forwards were accepting every chance to break loose. Both Gebbie and Rankin distributed brainy passes, and McCrae was full of dash. But there seemed little prospect of a goal accruing until, the 24 minutes, Morgan got over a pretty centre, Rankin met the ball with his head right in front of Yuill, and close in. It did not seem possible that the ball could get past the custodian, but it slipped through his hands and went down between his legs into the net. Twelve minutes later, and after more heavy pressure by Rangers, Morgan got the ball swung out to him. He adroitly round Hamilton, and Yuill immediately started to run away out towards the Saints’ winger. This was making it easy for Morgan. With quick perception he sized up the situation, and as promptly lofted the ball over Yuill’s head for it to soar gracefully into the net. It took Rangers six minutes of the second half to reduce the leeway, Marshall going in with a Morton pass and beating Fotheringham. This followed a storming attack on the Saints’ goal; but for a period afterwards the Love street forwards opened out in dashing style, playing their best football of the game. Then Rangers went sailing into it again, and with 35 minutes gone, Cunningham headed the equaliser after Morton and McPhail had led in. Five minutes later Archibald finished another massed attack by smashing the ball low and fast past Fotheringham to give Rangers the lead. Now it seemed all over with the Saints; but along came Morgan, and when Yuill went down to the ball, all he could do was to stop and push it to the feet of McCrae, whose goal gave the non-stop contest a right dramatic finish. To the young campaigners on the st Mirren side, the greatest praise id due. Colquhoun, Walker, Rankin and Connor came out of a testing ordeal with enhanced reputation. Connor has excellent control of the ball and a lot of dexterous moves – a dangerous youngster if given space to work in. He had a good partner in Rankin, while over on the other wing Morgan made the best use of his accurate passes from Gebbie. The three in the rear did all men could do to save a point. Yuill’s anxiety was possibly the real cause of his misfortunes, and I shall leave it at that. Gray played a steady safe game with both head and feet. Hamilton found Morgan difficult to stop at times, but he was one of four good working backs. I thought Craig the best forcing half-back on the field, although Muirhead was well to the fore during Rangers’ dominant period in the second half. Meiklejohn got through a tremendous amount of work as usual. Rangers’ forwards played some tip-top football, and their fighting rally commanded admiration. Between two well-balanced wings, Marshall supplied plenty of power and he took his goal like a workman.
