Holloway made two enforced changes to the team that had been turned over by Coventry last Monday. Jake Cole came in for his debut behind Bignot, Shittu, Evatt and Dyer. Ainsworth, Bean, Rowlands and Langley were in midfield behind the strike pairing of Moore and Furlong.

The game started terribly for Brighton when Charlie Oatway found himself on the end of a mistimed challenge from Marcus Bean. It was not a shocker by any means, the reaction of the Brighton players will tell you that, but the angle was awkward. Oatway was carried off with what we hear is a suspected fractured ankle. He was replaced by Richard Carpenter and five minutes later he had created the games only goal.

Langley gave away a freekick on the Brighton right and was harshly booked by Styles. Carpenter swung the ball in and Guy Butters climbed all over the back of Shittu, forced him to the floor and headed the ball powerfully past the exposed Cole. It was a clear foul but Styles was having none of it. What is more worrying though was the fact that we had conceded yet another headed goal.

A couple of minutes later the play took Styles to within earshot of the R’s bench and Timmy Breacker gave him both barrels. He was promptly sent off. What a great Boxing Day this was turning into. Aside from this Rangers were having an absolute stinker. Nothing was working properly. The ball was not being retained, we were struggling to win it back and when we did we were content to just hammer it into the ether and see whether Furlong could make something of it.

Jake Cole was getting more work than he would have liked on his debut. He didn’t have a hope with the goal but he had been called into action a couple of times and gone about his work with the minimum of fuss. As the half drew to a close he made an excellent save from Frutos after the Frenchman had managed to find some space at the near post.

The game reached half time with the fans either bored rigid or frozen solid. The R’s fans had been deathly quiet throughout and it was not surprising. The team had served up nothing to get excited about and with that in mind many hoped that there would be some changes at half time but there weren’t.

Rangers did seem to have a bit more life about them as the second half got underway but it would not have been hard to outdo the terrible first period. From a freekick twenty five yards out Rangers finally managed to register a shot in anger. Furlong had been felled and Langley stepped up to take the kick. He curled his effort over the wall but Michel Kuipers dived to his right to palm it away. He needn’t have bothered in truth as Butters would have hacked the ball off of the line anyhow.

Holloway finally changed things by throwing on Cook and Nygaard in place of Bean and Moore. The big Dane caused problems from the off and at last the Brighton defence had something to think about. Cookie managed to test Kuipers shortly after coming on and showed some neat tricks on the left. The support he was getting from Dyer though was non existent so he had to do most of the work on his own.

Despite a decent spell of pressure Brighton were still doing enough to keep Jake Cole interested. He made a brilliant flying save to deny The Coca Cola Kid, Colin Kazim-Richards. The burly striker had managed to break clear of Evatt and Shittu and crashed a typically fierce shot at goal. The young custodian flew to his right to get a strong hand to the ball and thwart the danger.

At the other end Nygaard almost created a goal when he ran onto Cook’s pass and skipped past Kuipers. The angle was tight and the Dane could only send the ball across the face rather than onto the target. Later in the game he would send a header wide and also lash a wild shot into the vast expanses between the pitch and the away fans. What he was showing though is that he is the most potent striker we have and we have to find a way of keeping him vaguely fit.

Furlong should have scored twice late in the game. Firstly he was denied at the far post by Butters’ challenge as he seemed destined to tap the ball into a gaping net. He then had a volley that lopped over the bar when he should have done much better. There was still time for Cole to make one more excellent save when former Millwall striker Mark McCammon lumbered goalward.

A second contentious decision from Styles then firmly slammed the door on any hope we had of getting back into the game. Rangers won a corner and Langley’s delivery was met by the head of Ian Evatt. The ball was clearly blocked by a Brighton arm but neither ref nor lino saw the blatant infringement and despite the protests play continued.

For the umpteenth time the R’s defence had been breached and it was through the gap between left back and the centre half. McCammon bore down on goal but Cole stood up for as long as he could before deflecting the resulting shot away from the target.

The final whistle brought the usual Boxing Day taste of disappointment as Rangers made it two 1-0 reverses on the spin against sides that you simply have to beat if you want to make anything of yourselves in this league. At the moment we don’t look capable of beating anyone and unless things improve rapidly we could be staring into the eyes of a relegation dogfight in a matter of days.

In the days to come we have home games against Cardiff and Burnley and an away game at Crewe. Seven points are needed as a minimum from these if we want to get ourselves out of the terrible malaise we have fallen into. I actually think we are more likely to end up with one or two points from these and then we are definitely up shit creek.

Goings on in the boardroom at Rangers don’t help, no matter whose fault it was, old regime or new, the current tax problems have likely eaten any budget Holloway had to strengthen the side so he will be reliant on a squad worse than last seasons one to pull us out of trouble. Great…

simon@qprnet.com