It was all change again from the Sheffield United game as injuries began to bite hard at the R’s squad. Royce was in goal behind a back four of Bignot, Shimmin, Shittu and Rose. Ainsworth, Gallen, Bircham and Brown lined up in midfield with Moore coming in to partner Furlong up front. There were places on the bench for Milanese, Bean, Miller, Baidoo and Ukah.

Before the game had even started Shittu was trying to get to one of the Coventry players in the centre circle and had to be intercepted by Dele Adebola. There were rumours later of a fight in the tunnel with Michael Doyle. Whatever had happened though had clearly rattled Shittu and that was exactly what Dominic Shimmin didn’t need. As a seventeen year old making your league debut you need a calm head alongside you, not a loon who wants to fight people before the game has kicked off.

Rangers were all over the place from the off with Coventry quicker to every ball and clearly with adrenalin running high in their new home. Some of the tackles they were putting in were ferocious and with referee Leake in charge that means only one thing. Bookings and plenty of them! Having ruined our game at Plymouth last season I knew what to expect and he didn’t disappoint. Every piece of physical contact was a freekick and every hard challenge was a booking.

Coventry took the lead after eleven minutes through the Dane, Claus Jorgensen. Shimmin had been dragged wide by the movement of Scowcroft and when he slipped the ball to Gary McSheffrey to cross, he was hopelessly out of position. Jorgensen charged from midfield and straight through the gap on the right side of the heart of the defence. Bircham was trailing in his wake as he met McSheffrey’s cross with a bullet header that screamed past Royce.

It was now a case of how Rangers would respond and in truth we didn’t. There was precious little service coming from midfield where Gallen was fighting the good fight almost unaided. He was the only one trying to play, trying to track back and trying to raise his troops. Up front Furlong was as anonymous as he has been since the dark days when he first arrived and is starting to look like a striker that can’t buy a goal.

Barely thirteen minutes had passed since the first when Coventry added their second through Adebola. Matthew Rose got himself into trouble and was run down by the big Coventry striker. He didn’t have to try too hard to brush the makeweight Rose off the ball and he turned inside before slamming the ball past Royce at his near post. Poor defending and poor keeping I am afraid. This was only Coventry’s second shot of the game and it had resulted in their second goal, their third shot would result in them scoring their third also!

On the stroke of halftime Scowcroft delivered a cross from the right that Shimmin tried to clear but only managed to hack against the frame of the goal. The ball bounced out to Adebola and he knocked it home to end any hopes Rangers might have had of an Ibiza style comeback. All Rangers had to show for their efforts were a couple of tame efforts from Ainsworth and Furlong that had not troubled the on loan Bywater in the Coventry goal.

An awful first half that surely couldn’t get any worse after the break, don’t you believe it! There had been a host of cards flashed in the game already with four Coventry and one Rangers player in the book before halftime. Leake’s yellow card was looking faded by the amount of sunlight it was seeing so he decided it was time to pull out the red.

Adebola was played through on goal and Shittu knew he had lost his man and grabbed a handful of shirt. When he realised what he was doing he let go before Adebola took three more steps and collapsed to the floor. Why a player would want to go down and get a fellow pro sent off with a hat-trick there for the taking baffles me. He had gone down easily to get Bignot booked minutes before so it is no surprise. Adebola had been so dominant he didn’t need to do this. Olly says he will appeal but he might as well not bother as Leake will not overturn this one.

Olly changed things immediately with Brown being replaced by Milanese and Rose switching to centre back. The big Italian showed what he was about from the off with some pinpoint passing and excellent positional play. Marcus Bean and Ugo Ukah were also into the fray soon after in place of Bignot and Bircham.

Although Coventry were still seeing a lot of the ball the sending off seemed to galvanise Rangers and they looked a lot more solid. Royce twice denied Adebola his hat-trick, I bet he wished he had taken his chance rather than going down so easily now. At the other end Stefan Moore was looking lively again and was only denied a consolation when his bending strike hit the back of Furlong’s leg after it had seemed to have the beating of Bywater.

Rangers had done well to keep a second half clean sheet but it does little to disguise the bumbling showing in the first half. The defence was all at sea, Shittu had lost the plot before kick off, Shimmin looked like a kid taking too many chances when a foot through the ball would do and Rose was appalling at left back. Bignot was doing what he could but he didn’t have a lot of help. Royce should not have been beaten at his near post for the second but for most of the game he was hopelessly exposed by those in front of him. They improved in the second half but the damage had been done.

In midfield Gallen and Ainsworth tried hard, the former turning in a very bright display and trying desperately to inspire his colleagues. Bircham and Brown were anonymous throughout. Up front Moore looked bright but Furlong looked out of sorts and you can’t see where a goal is coming from for him. He seems to have lost some spring in the summer and just looks a shadow of the player from last term. I hope this is temporary as we need him to find some form quickly.

What Rangers missed all afternoon were the people to fight fire with fire when the challenges were flying in. Santos may have his knockers but he does not and will not take a backward step. The same goes for Tommy Doherty whose importance to this team was highlighted in stark fashion in the first half.

The most positive point of the afternoon was the appearance of Mauro Milanese. He looks a bit short of match fitness but he seems like a class act. His positional play is top class and has to be as he has no pace to speak of. When he gets forward he uses the ball well and showed that he doesn’t mind sticking the boot in when he needs to. Ukah also looked bright when he came on and it was also a very promising debut.

Northampton Town await on Tuesday night and it is vital that we go there and get a win to get this out of our system. They need to show that this was a one off, that the first half was just one of those games where nothing goes your way. I think it was; now it is up to the players to show that it was.

simon@qprnet.com