Holloway was forced into changes after the victory at Leicester City on Saturday. Royce was in goal behind Bignot, Shittu, Santos and new boy Lloyd Dyer. Langley, Bircham, Lomas and Cook were in midfield with Sturridge partnering Nygaard in attack.

Rangers started like a house on fire and having broken down Millwall’s first attack they swept up the left through Sturridge and won the first corner of the game. Langley’s ball in was met on the run by Shittu but his header lacked the direction you would expect from him and it flew wide of Andy Marshall’s goal.

Millwall were being comprehensively out passed in the opening exchanges yet they almost took the lead when former Brentford striker Carl Asaba had a deflected effort gathered by Royce. There was a real cut and thrust about the game as both sides tried to pass through each other rather than over each other. New loan signing Lloyd Dyer was linking well with Cook and they were giving Phil Ifil a real working over.

All that was good about the R’s attacking seemed to go through Nygaard. The Beast was starting to show that he is far more than a target man with some excellent link up play and time and again he switched the play from wing to wing. With twenty five minutes on the clock he grabbed the goal that gave Rangers the lead.

Rangers won a corner on the right and Lee Cook sent in a dipping delivery to the near post. As he did on Saturday, Nygaard evaded his markers and ran unchecked to the edge of the six yard box before powering a header past Marshall and into the back of the net. It was a great finish but it was also a brilliant delivery. Cook seems to be working really hard on this at the moment and hopefully he and Langley can spark off each other in this area and both improve even more.

Millwall seemed susceptible to decent set pieces and every time a ball went into the box there seemed to be some sort of minor panic ensuing. Rangers couldn’t quite make one count despite a few close calls and despite the fact that they were enjoying the majority of possession clear cut chances were at a premium. Whilst Nygaard was working well outside the box, his partner Sturridge seemed to be off the pace despite looking a lot fitter than we have seen him so far.

Rangers had what looked like a good shout for a pen when the electric pace of Dyer took him in behind the Millwall defence and he seemed to be caught in the box. Dermot Gallagher wasn’t interested, much as he wasn’t interested in anything that went on in the way of fouls all night. I am all for letting the game flow and would rather it were like this but there are times when freekicks should be awarded and cards handed out. If we had had Saturday’s ref in charge of this one it would have been eight a side by the final whistle!

The failure to turn possession into goals blew up in Rangers’ faces in first half injury time as Millwall hit back. Rangers were trying to play up the left but the ball was surrendered on halfway and Asaba was sent clear on the right. Dyer was caught upfield so Santos had to come across to cover, this left a big gap behind him that Shittu hadn’t filled. Bignot tried but seemed to over run the ball in and Barry Hayles popped up behind him and headed home powerfully. The halftime whistle followed almost immediately.

After the break the flowing football of the first half seemed to have been replaced with panicky clearances from the centre backs. Time and again Santos and Shittu were just putting their foot through it where they were looking for a midfielder in the first half. Even so, Rangers had good chances to add a second goal, unfortunately the two best ones fell to Bircham rather than one of the strikers.

His first effort was a sharp shot that Marshall held easily. The second was a header from a right wing cross that failed to hit the target. At the other end, Budweiser label model Don Hutchison had an effort well saved by Royce as the game started to come back to life a little.

The Millwall fans were doing their best to drum up an atmosphere in the half empty stadium but long gone are the days when this lot can be considered intimidating. Laughable would be a more accurate description of the knuckle draggers to the left of the away fans that looked like a pack of badly dressed schoolboys. The abuse meted out to one R’s fan in particular was bang out of order and had it been anywhere else than Millwall something would have been done.

Colin Lee had now thrown on Ben May and gone to three up front in an effort to win the game. This caused some problems for Rangers as inevitably one of our midget fullbacks would be up against either May or Asaba who are both well over six feet. Indeed it was Asaba that worked his way past Dyer only for Santos to intervene and send the ball out for a corner. Just! The ball rolled perilously close to the upright on its way and had it been inside the post I am not sure that Royce would have got there.

Millwall were certainly having the better of it now and it was a rare break that saw Dyer steaming up the left wing. When he looked up he realised that none of his colleagues had managed to keep pace with him so all he was left with was a shot. It wasn’t much of a shot though and it flew into the Millwall fans behind the goal.

In the closing minutes Millwall missed a great chance to grab all three points for the first time at home this season. Jamie Vincent, who had a trial for Rangers in pre-season, whipped in a corner and moaning Ady Williams headed over the top from six yards. He should have done much better with it although for Millwall to have won this game would have been harsh on Rangers to say the least.

This was very much a game of two halves. Rangers were dominant in the first half but the goal in injury time knocked confidence and the second half lacked any sort of fluidity. It was all long balls to Nygaard and although he dealt with most of them well he was lacking in genuine support. Saying that though, if you are offered four points from two away games in a few days I think you would take them and be on your way.

There were some more promising displays here. Dyer, although you could see he is far more winger than full back, did very well considering he had only met the team that day. His pace is frightening and he and Cook worked well together with Cookie working extremely hard to give as much cover as he could. Lomas was quality again and his weight of passing was outstanding. He also covers every blade of grass. Nygaard up top was brilliant and gave a near faultless display. He has given Olly a problem now as after the last two games he must be virtually undroppable.

Palace await now on Monday night and I would give anything to get one over on one of the most odious clubs in English football. There is something about them that rubs me up the wrong way though I have never been able to put my finger on what that is! If we can play for 90 minutes like we did in the first half here then I reckon we should be well equipped to turn then over.

simon@qprnet.com