After the draw at Swindon Holloway made a couple of changes, both enforced and by choice, to the starting eleven. Day kept his place but the back four showed two changes, one in personnel and one in position. Big Dan came into the side for his first start in a little over two months. Terrell Forbes switched to right back with Carlisle and Padula making up the rest of the defence. Eric Sabin made way for Ainsworth and Steve Palmer replaced the suspended Marc Bircham to line up alongside Bean and Rowlands. The blossoming strike partnership of Thorpe and Gallen was rightly retained.

The opening half an hour of the game followed a very rigid pattern. Rangers would cut swathes through the ragged Wednesday defence almost at will whilst The Owls would contrive to be offside every time they passed the ball forwards. As a result the men from Sheffield had absolutely nothing to offer and every time they did manage to get within a few passes of creating a chance the imperious Clarke Carlisle stood in their way. Lloyd Owusu and Adam Proudlock were frustrated all afternoon by Clarke and Big Dan as the pair of them resumed their watertight partnership of last season.

After a spell where neither team managed to carve out a clear-cut chance Rangers hit the front with the first effort on target of the game. Having won a freekick in front of The Paddock Rangers flooded the box and for the first time in a while there were some big old units in the box to aim for. Padula's delivery was perfect and Palmer stooped in at the near post to glance a header past the helpless Kevin Pressman. It really was a case of perm one from four as so many Rangers players lost their markers it was untrue, if that is representative of how Wednesday have defended this season then their league position can come as no surprise.

Gallen should have added the second goal just a few minutes later following great work from Tony Thorpe. Chasing a seemingly lost cause Thorpe muscled his man off the ball and cut it back only for Gallen to flash a shot just wide of Pressman's left hand post. Martin Rowlands was close soon after as Padula's selfless run created space for him and the little midfielder cracked a shot into the side netting from distance.

Quite how Rangers managed to get to the break with only a one-goal advantage is a mystery. The balance of play was about as one sided as we have seen this season and you felt it only had to be a matter of time before the goals started to flow. As enjoyable as the game to this point was it was being blighted by some shocking officiating. Referee Cable, not content with clattering a Wednesday player in the box gave a whole host of bizarre decisions and his linesman on the Ellerslie Road side was even worse. I am not sure if he was an official official or just some fella that had wandered in and picked up the flag. My money is on the latter as he managed to get almost every decision wrong for the entire ninety minutes. Impressive I think you will agree!

The second half carried on in much the same vein as the first with Rangers making all of the running and Wednesday doing whatever they could not to get blown away. Twice players were felled within freekick range of Pressman's goal. Rowlands hammered the first effort into the wall but Padula's attempt just minutes later flew just over the bar with Pressman almost waiving it goodbye. The taking of the kick was delayed as referee Cable marked out his wall with the assistance of 14,000 Rangers fans. Carlisle was in stitches as the crowd counted out the ref's every step to make sure he wasn't going to balls this up as well!

Ainsworth should have scored when his brilliant first touch from Gallen's cross-field pass gave him space and time. He tried to turn one to many defenders though and the chance was blocked out. We then saw three chances come down the Wednesday inside left channel. Rowlands and Thorpe twice, got in only for them to dally on the shot and see either a Wednesday leg or the rotund Pressman get in the way.

There were 85 minutes on the clock when Rangers got the goal their dominance had warranted. Rowlands won a corner and Gino strode across to take it. His delivery, as it had been for the first goal, was inch perfect and Thorpe was on hand to head home unmarked from eight yards for his sixth goal for the club. It was a perfect demonstration of why Rangers always block the keeper off at corners as Pressman can only have been two or three yards away but could not get anywhere near it.

The icing on the cake came in injury time as Rangers grabbed a third goal on the break. The Owls had thrown everything forward in an attempt to salvage some pride from the game and the incisiveness of the Rangers passing simply cut them to ribbons. Gallen cleared the ball to the feet of Thorpe and continued his run. Thorpe showed excellent body strength to hold off his man before hooking the ball back into Gallen's path and he bore down on Pressman. As the defensive cover came across Gallen picked out the onrushing McLeod, now on for Marcus Bean, and the scouse winger coolly side footed first time past Pressman.

Top spot had been consolidated and it was nice to see the full time scores come through and not have to worry too much about any of them. In this mood nobody in this division can live with us and we just need to make sure that we start to transfer our home form to our travels so we can keep this run going.