After a couple of less then inspiring individual displays on Saturday Gregory shook things up. Royce was in goal behind Rehman, Mancienne, Stewart and Milanese. Smith, Lomas, Bailey and Cook were in midfield with Nygaard and Blackstock up top. There was a welcome return to the sixteen for Gareth Ainsworth following his ankle injury. 

The game started slowly as both sets of players came to terms with the bitterly cold conditions. The best either side could muster in the opening twenty minutes were a couple of Bell shots that flew wide and a Nygaard header that failed to hit the target. This would be the big Dane’s theme for the night as he missed a succession of excellent opportunities. 

Slowly Rangers began to assert themselves on the game and Cook and Blackstock in particular were linking well to give Kevin Foley and Chris Coyne some real problems. The increase in tempo from Rangers meant that the chances also started to come and in a fifteen minute spell before halftime Rangers should have put the game to bed. 

Cook played Blackstock in and he left Coyne for dead before whipping a ball across the box toward the onrushing Nygaard. In truth the ball wasn’t the best and gave Nygaard a lot to do and he failed to make contact whilst at full stretch. Nygaard showed some pretty poor anticipation all night so you can’t help but wonder whether it would have been a tap in had he read the situation earlier. 

Moments later Smith sent in a fizzing low shot from twenty yards that was well saved by Dean Brill. The young Luton keeper was quickly back to his feet to dive bravely at the feet of Blackstock as he tried to tuck home the rebound. Luton went up the other end and Bell was thwarted by the lino’s flag as he tried to breach the R’s offside trap. He did tuck the ball home but the whistle had long since gone. 

The chance of the game came soon after and it was created by a buccaneering run from Milanese. The Italian full back galloped past Cook on the overlap and was fed in perfectly. He took his time and sent in a great ball to the near post where Nygaard was arriving unmarked six yards out with the simplest of tasks to give Rangers the lead. Somehow the Dane contrived to head wide of the target with the goal at his mercy to howls of derision from the frostbitten fans behind the opposite goal. 

On the stroke of halftime Blackstock came off second best in a collision with Brill after he tried to force yet another decent chance home. Fortunately he was ok and as the teams went in at the break Rangers were certainly the happier although there was an uneasy feeling amongst the fans that having missed so many chances things would all end in tears. Again! 

Rangers picked up where they had left off and once again Nygaard found space only to be thwarted by his chronic lack of ability. Smith slipped a ball into his path and he battled his way past Sol Davis and had an age to pick a pass into the box. Instead he managed to lose his way and only succeeded to clip the angle of post and bar from a ridiculously tight angle. He will no doubt ague that it was a shot but I think that everyone there and everyone that has seen him will know better. 

Luton were still huffing and puffing without making any impact. Royce was fielding the odd shot but he hadn’t had to make a save worthy of the name, only a few strikes that he should take with his eyes closed. The lack of penetration was due in large part to some imperious defending from the increasingly impressive pairing of Mancienne and Stewart. The young Chelsea loanee was showing the sort of form that Jose wishes one of his centre backs could produce 

Such was the lack of creativity in the middle of the Luton midfield Steve Lomas was making attacking runs at a rate never seen from the ginger general in all his time at Loftus Road. From one such run he forced a corner and Jimmy Smith crossed the pitch to send the ball into the box. His delivery was perfect and Damion Stewart found space and powered a header inches wide. It was another poor miss and he will know that he should have forced the keeper into some sort of save.  

And still the chances came for Rangers and once again Nygaard missed a gilt edged one. Cook this time created the chance after a great run and a piercing through ball. Nygaard lolloped into the box and instead of pulling the ball back to the three R’s players screaming for it he shot to the near post and hit the side netting. He didn’t last much longer and with a little under twenty minutes left he got the hook and Ray Jones was on. 

Jones had barely had time for a touch though when the game exploded following a rash challenge from Stefan Bailey. Bailey had been down minutes before and endured the taunts of two bob stroller Langley whilst on the deck. It had clearly gotten to the youngster and when he saw Brkovic dally on the ball in front of him he absolutely hammered him! The challenge was two footed but Bailey won the ball with at least one of them! Five Luton players converged on him immediately and the R’s players followed suit. 

The ref stepped away to have a conflab with the lino and then called Bailey across and flashed the red at him. Bailey then seemed to square up to the ref and caught him in the face, perhaps accidentally, before Stewart ushered him away. Whether he meant to catch the ref or not he shouldn’t have been so close and Mr Jones will have done him a favour if he hasn’t mentioned it. Richard Hill raced seventy yards across the pitch to get Bailey down the tunnel and diffuse the situation. Rangers had gone now from a comfortable position to a precarious one and Luton had been given the lift their limp performance needed. 

Mike Newell sent Dean Morgan on in place of the injured Brkovic and the reshuffle had the desired effect as with ten minutes to go he had a hand in the winner. Morgan lined up a shot that was struck a mile off target but seemed to zero in on the hapless Rehman. The former Fulham man had been assured all evening at right back and nobody could quite believe their eyes when he swung his left foot at the ball in an attempt to clear only to miss it completely. The ball cannoned off of his standing leg and headed for the corner of the net. The hitherto redundant Royce scrambled to try and keep it out but to no avail. 

Gregory slung Ainsworth on for the final few minutes but with no joy and at the final whistle Rangers were left to reflect on their profligacy in front of goal and two crazy moments. The team as a whole, for most of the game, played as well as they have in weeks but yet they still lost and that will hurt the players more than being out of the cup. Being out of the cup will hurt the club more though as a mooted £300k TV windfall has just made its way up the M1.  

Rangers have now lost three on the bounce at a time when confidence is already going through the floor. When you start losing even after playing well you have to really worry as it won’t take too many more of those types of defeats to have the white flag flying high over Loftus Road. 

Man of the Match – Michael Mancienne. The kid is simply outstanding and I will be amazed if he isn’t playing every week for a Premiership side next season.

simon@qprnet.com