With suspensions and injuries hitting the squad hard Gregory took a trip back in time to 1996 and came back with a 3-5-2 formation! Royce was in goal behind a back three of Stewart, Mancienne and Milanese. Bailey and Bignot occupied the wingback berths with Rowlands, Gallen and Smith in the middle of the park. Blackstock was partnered by Nygaard up front. 

Neither side seemed to be up to much in the opening exchanges as defences looked to be well on top. Mancienne was showing that he is clearly far more comfortable at centre back as he cruised about winning headers and clearing danger. Gallen had a long range shot blocked for Rangers before Royce made an excellent save after Hendrie managed to sneak in behind Milanese and crack a shot goalward from ten yards. 

Stoke took the lead after seventeen minutes from the penalty spot. A ball over the top of Milanese led to a footrace between the Italian and Ricardo Fuller. There was only going to be one winner and Milanese had hold of the Jamaican as they entered the box and Fuller inevitably went down. There were howls of derision amongst the R’s fans and players but I would have been severely hacked off had we not got that decision at the other end. Danny Higginbotham stepped up and blasted his pen down the middle and in via Royce’s foot. 

Rangers weren’t doing anything going forward so it was hard to see where an equaliser was going to come from even at this early stage of the game. Stoke were fashioning the few chances that there were but even they owed a lot to poor play rather than attacking guile. Royce made a horlicks of a clearance and had to scramble back onto his line to prevent Fuller scoring number two. Michael Duberry then tested the reflexes of the R’s fans with a wild shot high over the bar. 

A Damion Stewart long ball required Simonsen to touch the ball in anger for the only time in the half and it turned out to be Rangers only “shot” on target in the first period. After the break Rangers showed their hand too early when Gallen had the only shot on target of the second half after just fifty minutes! It was a thirty yard daisy cutter which was held easily by Simonsen. 

Stewart almost handed Darrel Russell a tap in when he dallied on the ball outside the box. Only a superb tackle from the impressive Mancienne prevented him slotting home his fifth of the season. At the other end an in swinging ball from Milanese evaded the head of Nygaard at the far post. Shortly afterwards a tangle of legs saw Blackstock crash to the floor under challenge from Duberry but referee Atkinson wasn’t interested. I feel fairly sure that had it been at the other end it would have been awarded, Atkinson was poor all day and awarded a poor R’s side almost nothing. 

Stoke were having trouble getting any decent shots on goal themselves and a host of chances seemed to fly wide of the target and over the top. The only time a shot in anger was registered came when Hendrie had already been flagged offside and forced Royce to tip his shot over the top. 

Gregory introduced Furlong into the fray for Blackstock with twenty minutes left to play. He keeps taking Blackstock off when he is far more likely to score a goal than the lumbering Dane, much to the bemusement of many Rangers fans. Shortly after Furs came on Jimmy Smith came to life and should have won a penalty for Rangers after he was blatantly tripped. 

He showed some lovely slight of foot on the edge of the box and he was clearly tripped as he turned inside his man. Once again Atkinson was having none of it and waved away the appeals. Having seen this man award a penalty against Rangers after a horrendous dive from Luke Chadwick for West Ham a couple of seasons ago you do have to wonder whether he has cataracts, glaucoma or similar. 

Rangers huffed and puffed away with their ineffective trio in the middle of the park creating nothing. Ward came on for Rowlands late in the game but to no avail. A late glancing header wide from Nygaard was the final Rangers action of what was a poor game for the paying punter. 

That is now four defeats on the spin and whilst we were certainly tighter at the back it appeared to be at the expense of attacking threat. Bailey and Bignot are not wingbacks. Neither are attacking enough to play there and whenever Bignot gets the ball he turns back inside and destroys all of the width that this formation allegedly affords. 

The back three were ok, but just ok. Mancienne was immense between two players that weren’t exactly at the top of their games. What it did show though is that whatever formation we play, Mancienne should be playing centre back in it. Smith, Rowlands and Gallen were rubbish and there were certainly a few raised eyebrows at Gregory’s assertion that Gallen “ran the show from midfield”. Had he ran the show maybe we would have created more than three shots in the game? 

Blackstock and Nygaard were anonymous up front, hardly surprising though with the middle three doing nothing and two wingbacks that were ill equipped for the roles they were picked in. So, where do we go from here? 

In the last two games without Cook things have looked bleak. It is almost inevitable that he will be sold in January so will we have a long hard season after he has gone, maybe longer and harder than that we have already endured? For the third game in a row I think Gregory has picked the wrong team, this time in terms of formation. There was no pace in the side to try and stretch a defence that has now kept seven clean sheets on the spin. Baidoo was sat on the bench, he may be raw but he is rapid, play him, you never know, it might just work!  

The January transfer window may bring some renewed hope in terms of getting players in, we will certainly have to try and get some players out though. The previous regimes have bought some terrible players that need shipping out, mind you; if no bugger wants them then we are lumbered. At this point I really have no idea where this season is going or what the current regime are trying to achieve. 

Man of the Match – Michael Mancienne. The Chelsea youngster was superb again and showed that he is a natural at centre back. Hopefully we might see him there again at some point!

simon@qprnet.com