After the creditable draw at Ipswich Holloway was forced into a change and also made one through choice. Royce was in goal behind Bignot, Evatt, Shittu and Dyer. Ainsworth, Bean, Rowlands and Langley were in midfield behind a makeshift front two of Moore and Santos. Rose and Bircham were finally fit enough to take their places on the bench.

Rangers started the game brightly and Ainsworth could have made it one nil early doors. Having won a corner on the right, Langley sent in an excellent out swinging delivery and Ainsworth met the ball with a thunderous header. On loan Spurs keeper Marton Fulop did well to turn the ball round the post.

At the other end Coventry also managed to force an early corner and it was cleared in less than convincing circumstances. Uriah Rennie was already making a lolloping nuisance of himself by interfering with the player’s at the most inopportune moments. In fact later in the game he would almost smash a player in the face with his bell end as he intervened in a situation that had never happened!

Santos was turning in a good shift in an unfamiliar position and had linked well with Moore a couple of times. In one moment of fluid football Bignot played a ball in from the right and Moore dummied brilliantly. This seemed to take Georges by surprise a little bit and his touch was too heavy to allow him a shot on goal. It was the sort of position that Furs would have loved to have found himself in. Maybe if he stopped collecting so many cards he might be able to!

Langley was drifting inside and starting to exert some influence on the game. With one brilliant turn he left Michael Doyle on his backside and was unlucky not to set up a chance with an incisive ball to Moore. It was one way traffic but the clear cut chance was just not coming.

Moore only got the slightest of touches on an Ainsworth cross and could not direct the ball on target. Georges then missed a ball from Bignot by a whisker before Ainsworth drove a low cross into Fulop’s arms from a tight angle. Langley also had a blistering effort from twenty five yards blocked before the keeper was forced to intervene.

Rangers had been the only team in the game yet had failed to make any impression on the score sheet. Not for the first time this season we were creating no more then half chances and we seemed to be reliant on someone pulling something brilliant out of the bag rather than working a decent team goal.

At the start of the second half Stefan Moore shot wide after Shittu had run forward powerfully from the back. Gareth Ainsworth, who had been the fulcrum of the R’s attack in the first half was filling a similar role in the second. He came within inches of the opener when he got his head to a good cross from Moore. Fulop seemed to be beaten but the ball skimmed narrowly over the top.

What the game needed was fresh legs up front. Santos and Moore was not working as a partnership despite some good work from the R’s utility man. But with Furlong suspended, Gallen and Nygaard injured and Baidoo ill there was nothing to call on. In the first half Rangers best work had come when they had got the ball on the deck and allowed Langley to probe the Coventry defence. In the second half there was a preoccupation with bashing it over the midfield and looking for flicks. It wasn’t working.

The one time Rangers kept it down and played they strolled through the Coventry back four. Dyer and Santos linked well on the left and Santos was set clear to send a low cross across the box. His ball was a decent one but played a fraction too early for Moore to be able to reach it before it zipped past him.

Holloway withdrew Bean and threw Cook on in his place. This could have been a match winning move if we had managed to get him the ball in a decent area at any point! The tricky winger only had one real moment of involvement in the game and that was when a ball dropped to him twenty five yards from goal. He struck his volley sweetly but it was too close to Fulop and the keeper gathered it easily.

Holloway made another change to try and freshen things in attack and replaced Santos with Bircham. The big Frenchman had run himself into the ground and Ainsworth moved up top to partner Moore. There would not be another chance for Rangers in the game. There was time though for one effort from Coventry that would prove to be the match winner.

Things had been a little shaky at the back for a ten minute spell with players slipping and seemingly failing to communicate properly with one another. From a defensive lapse Gary McSheffrey was allowed to run clear by Evatt. The big centre back could not get near him but a poor touch allowed Royce a chance to intervene. He came roaring out and McSheffrey just managed to toe the ball away from him and he was felled under the keepers challenge.

It was a nailed on pen but Evatt was on the cover so poor was the touch so Royce was not the last man. Rennie did not hesitate to send him off once he had slowly covered the ground to get there. Royce stormed off with gloves and shirts flying in all directions and Jake Cole made his long awaited debut as a replacement for Ainsworth.

A good two minutes had passed since the award of the pen but McSheffrey stayed focused and smashed an unstoppable shot past the debutant keeper to steal the win. Shortly afterwards the fourth official held up a ridiculously short three minutes of injury time but it could have been three hours, we still would not have scored.

This was a game we should have won and if we had kept playing football then I think we would have created a decent chance or two eventually. Instead the ball was being smashed from back to front, bypassing the talented midfield we had on show and it just wasn’t working. One of two things is happening here, either the players are ignoring the manager’s instructions or they are carrying them out to the letter. Either way it has to change.

Brighton are next up on Boxing Day and Santos and Royce will both miss the game through suspension. According to Holloway only Furlong will be back. Seemingly our well paid medical team have not had enough time to get anyone else fit despite having them on the treatment table for what seems like an eternity now. Hopefully this is a load of rubbish and Nygaard and Gallen will be back. If it’s true we could be in for yet another crappy Christmas courtesy of the Rangers.

simon@qprnet.com