Kevin Gallen saved a point for Rangers in a game that shouldn't have needed to be saved. Rangers controlled the possession but squandered the chances, we should have wrapped the game up by half time but were let down by indecisive finishing and poor set pieces deliveries.

Things looked ominous from the off for Rangers. Both Matthew Rose and Fraser Digby were ruled out through late injuries and were replaced in the starting line up by Rhys Evans making the first appearance of his loan spell and Aziz Ben Askar returning after his stomach injury. ABA formed the defensive partnership with Shittu whilst Steve Palmer was pushed up into midfield once again. Terrell Forbes returned at right back and Richard Pacquette partnered Kevin Gallen up front.

Rangers dominated the play for the first 45 minutes. An early chance for Wigan was hacked away by Evans in the fifth minute but that proved to be the most the visitors could offer for the whole period. Our first chance came when John Filan's poor clearance landed at Richard Pacquette's feet, had his touch been a little more assured he may have been able to knock it into the empty net. Pacquette was in the action again shortly after, doing well to knock the ball down to Gallen who put it in the back of the net only to be ruled offside.

Rangers then laid siege to the Wigan end, John Filan did his best to make up for the earlier blunder by keeping out Kevin Gallen twice and putting Alex Bonnot's close range shot past the post. Bonnot had a good controlling influence in midfield in what could be his last game for QPR. Rangers could count themselves unlucky to go into the break at nil nil. However in a half that saw nearly ten corners taken and only one cause a chance of note you must question how we can allow set pieces to be wasted so often. Richard Langley took all the corners, which amounted to 16 over the whole match but only two produced chances of any note. Whilst I appreciate no player can hit every corner perfectly this sort of ratio is not good enough for a professional footballer of any ability, let alone one of Langley's undoubted talent.

After such a dominating second half it was disappointing to see Rangers struggling to get going again after the break. Fortunately for us Wigan had started the half exactly as they finished it, poorly. Kenny Dalglish's son Paul continues to amaze me. I can't believe that after some six years and about four clubs no one has realised he is not his Dad. Yes he has inherited his Dad's pace, unfortunately for him it is the pace his Dad has now!

It took until the 60 minute mark for Rangers to start to get back into the game, Terrell Forbes, who looked as composed as ever, put a shot just wide of Wigan's post. By this time 'Olly had seen enough and Doudou was brought on to inject some life in place of Richard Pacquette who is still learning that blockbuster thirty yard goals may earn you a reputation in the reserves but are harder to come by in the first team. He shows promise but needs to improve his first touch and think about the simple ball a little more.

Doudou nearly did exactly what 'Olly had hoped, finding himself on the end of a storming volley which was unfortunately hit straight at John Filan. That seemed to wake Rangers up a bit, and the pressure that we had enjoyed in the first half returned, but so did the lack of finishing guile and wasted corners.

By now this amount of pressure could not continue without a goal, and it didn't, the problem was it was Wigan who got it. Peter Kennedy's free kick managed to find Jason De Vos completely unmarked and he headed home to give Wigan an unlikely lead. Quite how we allowed a man of De Vos's stature to be sauntering around our penalty area remains a mystery to me.

At this point almost half the Upper Loft reached into their pocket and threw away wasted betting slips, due to a misprint Ladbrokes had offered a nil nil result at 80 - 1, many people (including me) took advantage of this, thanks Mr. De Vos! Lets hope our poor finishing is not attributed to the players also fancying a flutter!!

Betting aside, Rangers now had to unbelievable fight their way back into a match they should have already won. The goal shook us for a while and Wigan actually had some more attempts on goal Lee McCulloch attempted to lob Evans, but the young keeper saved well.

By this time Dennis Oli had replaced Leroy Griffiths to make his debut for the R's and we nearly drew level shortly afterwards, Alex Bonnot's shot was parried by Filan, it fell once again to Bonnot, but he couldn't quite finish it off. By this point the game looked lost, however hopes were raised when the fourth official announced four minutes injury time and finally, finally Rangers domination was rewarded when Kevin Gallen curled a blockbusting shot into the Wigan goal to earn a share of the spoils.

Although we can criticise the players for failing to capitalise on their chances, we must also give them credit for playing to the end and snatching a draw when they could have so easily let their heads drop and given up. A second home match awaits in Saturdays visit of Blackpool, the play off's now look an even more distant possibility, however anything can happen in this division, a run of results can get us back up there, we have ten games to go and are capable of winning them all, we are of course capable of losing them to, if the players show the same, never give up hope attitude that they showed today we could yet surprise ourselves.

ron@qprnet.com

PS. Our regular match reporter Simon Skinner was unable to write tonight's report, as he was busy having new windows put in his car thanks to the friendly locals of White City. Normal service will be resumed next time however I hope my efforts are an acceptable replacement!