Illness and injury forced Waddock into making changes for this one, unfortunately the back four remained unscathed and that to me was the area that needed addressing most urgently. Cole was in goal behind Rose, Stewart, Rehman and Milanese. Baidoo, Bircham, Ward and Cook lined up in midfield with Jones and Nygaard up front. There was no keeper on the bench due to illness to Paul Jones and injuries to Royce and Thomas.

It was clear from the off that there was precious little in the way of confidence flowing around the back four. The most routine clearances were being made to look like hard work and the continuing problem of us not being able to head the ball was all too evident.

Rangers hadn’t even got started when they gave away yet another crap goal. A corner into the box wasn’t cleared far enough and the ball was sent back in. Wayne Brown had the first effort and Bircham managed to get something in the way, it seemed to hurt him though and when the ball fell to Scotsman Chris Iwelumo he wasn’t in a position to do anything but try and fall in front of it. The big striker set himself before lashing a low shot across Cole and into the bottom corner. Nine minutes on the clock and a goal down, another stunning start from Rangers.

You needed someone to get hold of the players and try to get them going. All eyes looked to the skipper but if there is a more insipid captain in league football than Rose then I haven’t seen him. Dire against Birmingham in the week, he was lucky to have kept his place let alone kept the armband.

The one way traffic continued as Rangers total inability to clear their lines sufficiently meant that they didn’t have a chance to think about launching any sort of meaningful attack. They can barely have got into opposition territory before Colchester scored their second of the match.

Once again the defending was terrible, this time from a monster of a long throw from Greg Halford. The big right back hurled the ball deep into the box and once again the first header barely cleared the box. When it came back in there was half the team trying to stand up for offside and the other half not. This allowed the ball to be nodded into the path of the untracked Richard Garcia and the Aussie midfielder belted it into the roof of the net past the hopelessly exposed Cole.

If confidence had been low to this point it all went to cock now. Bircham and Stewart were bickering away as they had managed to make a complete Horlicks of a clearance and allowed Duguid a sight of goal. A terrible clearance from Cole then saw Garcia send a shot goalward and it looked to be going in before Cureton got in the way and deflected it wide. At this stage former R Curo had been the most effective defender!

Bircham finally managed to muster a shot in anger for Rangers just after the half hour mark as he sent in a skimming freekick from the edge of the box. Dean Gerken was hardly extended though and the young keeper held the ball easily. This did seem to gee Rangers up a bit and a searching cross from Cook was headed clear by Barker as Nygaard lurked behind him. If the big lump had managed to get his arse in gear and actually make a challenge though he might have stood a chance of grabbing a goal.

Half time saw the anonymous Ray Jones replaced by Adam Czerkas. In truth Waddock could have dragged either of the front men off; I really don’t understand the thinking of playing to massive strikers together, especially when one of them might as well grow roots and allow birds to nest on him given his alarming lack of mobility.

The defending wasn’t getting any better and three R’s players almost put through their own net in as many minutes. Firstly Cole had to fly high to his left to turn an attempted clearance from Milanese over the top. From the corner Rehman headed the ball onto the roof of the net and from the next corner Stewart hacked a clearance a whisker past the post.

Czerkas managed to get a sight of goal after Brown allowed him to slip past his attentions. It seemed a simple task to shoot but the big Pole took an eternity and Brown got back to tow the ball away for a corner. Cookie went into the book for an agricultural lunge on Halford and this seemed to fire him up as all of a sudden he was jinking his way past Colchester defenders for fun.

Cook sent a right footed shot wide of the target before he sent in a teasing far post cross that just evaded the head of the onrushing Ward. Duguid almost set up Iwelumo for a second when he robbed the ever indecisive Rose of the ball and flashed a low cross through the box.

At the other end Nygaard finally managed to produce an effort at goal when he turned on the edge of the box and fired in a low shot straight at keeper Gerken. Cook then weaved his way past five Colchester players before seeing his fierce shot blocked by a home defender.

Baidoo then created himself a chance and will still be wondering now how he didn’t manage to score. He robbed Barker of possession, jinked inside the challenge of Brown but then contrived to drag a left footed shot past Gerken’s upright. He had to score, but it was indicative of another problem we have at the moment, an almost total inability to work the opposition keeper.

With fourteen minutes left to play Rangers were back in the match, but even then we were relying on the home team! Ward flicked a ball into the path of Nygaard and when Halford misjudged it he bore down on Gerken. As the home keeper came to intercept he lobbed the ball over him and it appeared to be drifting wide before Wayne Brown attempted to clear and only managed to steer the ball into the unguarded net.

Shortly afterwards Shabba was forced off after landing awkwardly after a header and he was replaced by a slimline Donnelly. The young midfielder had returned from the summer carrying a fair amount of tub and as a result had hardly featured to this point. He very nearly grabbed an equaliser when he cut inside Barker and hit a left footed effort that Gerken made a meal of and almost slung into his own net.

Cureton missed a simple chance to score at the far post from a corner as the zonal marking farce continued unabated before Nygaard missed a sitter that would have earned a point. Cook crossed from the left and Nygaard went to meet the ball in the six yard box. He connected with the header but didn’t get enough on it and managed to smear his nose all over his face in the process. It was a simple chance and one that has to be taken at this level.

From the resulting corner the R’s fans to the left of the goal were witnessing Stewart trying to distract Iwelumo by grabbing his old fella! It didn’t matter though as the ball in cleared everyone and the danger was gone.

At the final whistle there was a mixture of booing and applause from the R’s fans. The first half was embarrassing but the second half showed some decent attacking movement. The problem we have though is that we cannot defend the high ball into the box and no matter how many chances we create we cannot test the keeper. If that sort of thing goes on for much longer then we are going to be up to our necks in it pretty soon.

Some sections of the R’s support started chanting for a change in the boardroom, others were chanting for a change in the managers chair, others were simply bewildered and wondering what the bloody hell was happening in front of them. We are going backwards at a rate of knots and unless we can start putting some points on the board we won’t get out of this.

I feel slightly sorry for Waddo at the moment as he cannot account for the mistakes that his defenders continually make but he can start to make changes back there. I couldn’t believe the same back four was in place after the level of ineptitude against Birmingham in the week. We can’t head the ball yet we have a young man on the bench that is a heading machine. It needs to be changed and quickly.

Attacking wise we seem to be creating quite a lot of chances but we never seem to make the keeper pull off a blinder. Too many balls go into the box and aren’t even attacked let alone directed at goal. When we do manage to get to the ball the standard of finishing isn’t good enough. When you look at some of the other goals scored in The Championship this weekend you wonder whether any of our players are capable of doing the same and I’m not sure that they are.

Port Vale is next up in the cup followed by league games against Hull City and Southampton to end the month. I honestly can’t see us winning any of them the way we are defending and if that happens then I think the turmoil that seems to grip this club every few months will be kicking off again.

Man of the Second Half – Lee Cook. Not one player deserved any sort of praise from the first half but in the second Cookie was electric. He turned Halford inside out on more than one occasion and people should have made more of some of his deliveries into the box.

simon@qprnet.com