Holloway changed things slightly from the home draw with Blackburn’s hated rivals Burnley last Monday. Royce was in goal behind Bignot, Rose, Shittu and Milanese. Rowlands, Langley, Santos and Cook were in midfield behind Baidoo and Furlong.

The game started pretty evenly with both sides creating half chances that they should have done better with. Milanese felled Thompson early in the piece on the very edge of the area. German debutant Sergio Peter stepped up to take the freekick and whipped it just past the far post. Peter was sensational all afternoon and I think Olly should be phoning Sparky up to see if he wants to get him some proper first team experience down The Bush.

Rangers then tested Brad Friedel twice in as many minutes as they tried to get the edge on their Premiership opponents. Firstly Furlong seized on a poor defensive header from Andy Todd and poked an effort goalward. He couldn’t generate any power on his shot though and the giant American gathered easily. Shortly after, Furlong sent a great through ball into the path of Baidoo and he roared goalward before forcing Friedel to save his fierce shot at the near post.

At the other end Rose misjudged a long ball and Bellamy’s pace carried him in behind the R’s back four. Royce had to be alert to turn the strikers shot round the post. From the resulting corner Blackburn took the lead as Rangers surrendered yet another headed goal from a set piece. Shittu lost the flight of Peter’s ball to the back post and also lost the run of Todd. This meant the former Bolton bruiser had all the time in the world to nod comfortably past Royce.

Shittu and Rose were being badly exposed by the movement of Dickov and Bellamy and there wasn’t enough pressure on the ball in wide areas to stop them getting it into the diminutive strikers. It didn’t help the midfields attempts to pressure the ball to see referee Marriner penalise them for the slightest hint of physical contact. Embarrassingly one sided does not do his first half display justice.

Nine minutes before the break Rovers doubled their advantage thanks to a fabulous finish from Bellamy. Rangers had been forced further and further back by some incisive Blackburn passing and were rocking when the ball found its way to Peter on the left. He worked some space and whipped a cross to Bellamy on the edge of the box. Rose was slow to pressure the striker and he unleashed a perfectly placed left footed volley into the bottom corner.

At the half time whistle the gulf in class between the two sides was clear and what was also noticeable was the amount of passing that Blackburn got through. They just kept it and kept it and kept it some more as Rangers ran about trying to press them. It seemed as though the R’s players didn’t want to press to hard for fear of being cut to ribbons on the break.

After the break though things seemed to tighten up but there was still very little being created. Most of the Rangers attacking play in the first part of the second half came from an unlikely source in Milanese. He was clearly fed up with watching Cook fannying about in front of him and decided he could do far better!

After ten minutes of the half Holloway made a change that opened things right up and gave Rangers the impetus they so badly needed. Santos was withdrawn and Ainsworth came on in his place. Georges had been picked because Savage and Tugay would have kicked seven bells out of Rowlands and Langley but now we needed a goal and defensive thoughts had to be put on the back burner.

No sooner was Ainsworth on than he had made Matteo look like the fat mug he is by leaving him on his backside and sending a cross in that Friedel had to field. Shittu then sent one of his comedy freekicks into the crowd. That he is still allowed to take these is laughable as he hasn’t even managed to hit the target with one this season let alone make a keeper worry about saving one. Cook then shot wide after a decent run that was out of keeping with his lackadaisical display.

Ainsworth forced Friedel into his second real save of the match with a trademark volley from outside the area. The Blackburn boy was having fun against his boyhood heroes and Matteo had ended up in the book as he tried to think of ways to stop the belligerent winger.

With fifteen minutes to go Holloway made two final changes as he threw on Donnelly and Moore in place of Cook and Furlong. Donnelly’s first involvement was to send in a wicked freekick that Langley headed over the bar. Next time he got the ball he drove at the heart of the Rovers defence before slipping a perfect through ball into the path of Baidoo. It was an instinctive link up between the two stars of the youth team but Baidoo dragged his shot wide of the upright.

With five minutes to play Rovers closed the game out as they were gifted a third by yet more suicidal defending. Rose headed the ball weakly into the path of the ever dangerous Sergio Peter and he played a ball into the path of Bellamy. Rose stood up for offside, Shittu didn’t and the Welshman was in. He took one touch to control before clipping a left footed shot over Royce. It was a goal that gave the scoreline a flattering look as they were certainly not three goals better than us.

At the end of the game that players were given a good ovation by the noisy travelling contingent as they could see that they had really tried to get at their more illustrious opposition. Had it not been for two horrendous defensive balls ups then we may well have been able to squeak a draw with a bit of luck but it wasn’t to be.

If you look at the positives though you will see another good showing from Baidoo against two hard physical centre backs. You will see a sparkling fifteen minute cameo from Donnelly that laid out exactly what he is all about. Great passing, strong on the ball and he will score goals given the chance. His first start cannot be far away. Milanese turned in one of his best displays in an R’s shirt and Ainsworth was at his bruising best when he came on.

Let’s hope that the management see what was good about this game and build on it for the upcoming match against Southampton. We might even have a couple of new players by then but I’m not holding my breath!

simon@qprnet.com