Waddock made a couple of changes from the previous week’s goalless draw with Wolves and reverted to the central midfield pairing that had been totally dominant against Sheffield United. Jones was in goal behind Bignot, Shittu, Rose and Milanese. Ainsworth, Lomas, Bircham and Cook were in midfield behind Gallen and Furlong.

Scott Carson, on loan from Liverpool, introduced himself to the Wednesday fans with a spectacular save from an Ainsworth shot with barely two minutes played. Immediately the play swept to the other end of the park and a cross went into the box from Peter Gilbert. Rose seemed to have it covered until he ducked out of it at the last minute leaving Deon Burton with a header from point blank range. As is now the norm, Jones produced a staggering save flying high to his left.

The key moment of the game for me came after about ten minutes when Lomas and Yoann Folly went in for a 50:50 just inside the Wednesday half. The young Frenchman went in hard and Lomas dangled his foot at it. It seemed that with that one incident the midfield battle ground had been surrendered. Folly would go on to put in a storming, all action performance.

Only twelve minutes had been played when Rangers gifted Wednesday the lead. A routine throw on the R’s left was not defended properly and the ball was slipped over the top into the path of Burton. Shittu stood there and watched his man run off of him to slide the ball home. He then berated Bignot for not covering his mistake quickly enough. It was sloppy play all round, the midfield allowed their opponents all the time in the world to pick the killer pass and the defence just let the man run.

The huge Hillsborough pitch was allowing the wide men of both sides plenty of space. Cook was linking with Milanese to make the most of their space; the same could not be said for Ainsworth and Bignot who seemed to be treading water for almost the entire ninety minutes.

The Wednesday fans were starting to get the hump with referee D’Urso as they felt everything was going against them. Manchester City loanee Mikkel Bischoff was booked for an ugly two footed lunge on Furlong. He won the ball but the challenge was reckless and in truth he could easily have been sent off.

Shortly before the break Rangers grabbed an undeserved equaliser. Lomas seemed to be going nowhere as he was felled by the corner flag. Cook came across to swing the ball in and his perfect delivery was met at the near post by Bircham and he headed the ball powerfully past Carson.

The half time team talk went out of the window as soon as the half kicked off and Wednesday were all over Rangers like a cheap suit. Jones was flying about in his goal like a man possessed and made four top class saves in the first five minutes of the half. First he denied Tudgay and Burton in quick succession before producing one of his now trademark double saves.

There seemed to be little he could do as Tudgay shot from six yards but he somehow intervened. The ball went straight back to the former Derby striker and once again Jones was down low to thwart him. He then got his bit of luck as the ball fell to Folly and he rattled the ball against the bar.

It was one way traffic now as Rangers struggled to make any sort of impact on the game. Shittu and Rose looked hesitant, Bircham and Lomas weren’t winning any ball and Gallen and Furlong weren’t getting any decent service. Cook and Ainsworth had been swapped over in an attempt to get the latter into the game but it wasn’t happening.

Burton nodded straight at Jones for the Welsh stoppers easiest save of the game before Rangers forced Carson into a rare piece of action. Cook swung a freekick in from the right and it evaded everyone and seemed destined for the bottom corner before Carson flung himself low to his right to palm the ball away.

Cook was replaced by Langley with twenty minutes left in a change that had plenty of head scratching going on in the stands. Cook looked to be our best chance of creating something yet he had been withdrawn ahead of Ainsworth who had been non existent at best. Langley managed a rare effort at goal after tricking his way past Peter Gilbert but his left footed shot flew well wide.

Baidoo came on for a brief cameo with three minutes to go as a sub for Furlong before Rose was forced off as injury time commenced with what looked like a pretty serious injury. He had cleared a ball and kicked the bottom of Burton’s foot as he did so. Given Rose’s usual recovery time I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time we saw him was pre season!

At the final whistle the Wednesday fans launched into a chorus of boo’s. I wasn’t sure whether they were aimed at their players of the ref as they seemed to lose their rag with him for most of the afternoon. This was a game that they should have won easily and had it not been for Jones they definitely would have.

Rangers were lacklustre for much of the game and lacking in ideas. This was summed up perfectly at the end of the game when Bignot held the ball in the corner much to the annoyance of the R’s following. He got plenty for it, having come all this way I would rather have seen us have a bash at winning it and get beaten than hang on for a draw against a side that have a bloody good chance of playing third tier football next season.

Brighton is next up and this is a game that Rangers will be busting to win after a poor Boxing Day showing on the south coast. If we play well and they play well then we will win. Let’s hope we play well!

simon@qprnet.com