Very poor would be about as high a level of praise as the teams display against Cardiff on Saturday afternoon warranted. Our visitors were quicker all over the pitch, were more incisive all over the pitch and they had what we were desperately missing, a hint of a cutting edge. 

After the poor display against Leyton Orient changes were inevitable. Camp was in goal behind Rehman, Stewart, Mancienne and Curtis. Moore, Rowlands, Bolder and Ephraim were in midfield with Nardiello and Blackstock up front. The bench was an indication of how thin the squad is at the moment with four of the poorest performers from Tuesday sat in the dugout. 

In the opening minutes both sides saw shots fly wide of the upright. Nardiello was first to miss the target after a neat one two with Blackstock, at the other end, makeshift striker Paul Parry fired wide from twenty yards with Camp scrambling across his goal. Rangers soon went up for a penalty after a crisp Nardiello strike hit the hand of Loovens. It was definitely ball to hand and I would have been mighty annoyed had it been given against us so there are no complaints from this quarter. 

Camp was forced to intervene when Stewart inexplicably decided against attacking a long free kick from former Plymouth man Tony Capaldi. The ball looked as though it may bounce into the top corner so Camp had to flip it round the post. Camp was back in the action soon after when Trevor Sinclair, easily the best player on the park, cracked a volley straight down his throat. Sinclair had been giving Curtis a torrid time and he should have been thinking of stringing a fishing net between his legs such was the frequency Sinclair was putting the ball between them! 

The opening goal came on the half hour mark after a period of sustained pressure from Cardiff/suicidal defending from Rangers. A host of corners were causing confusion in the R’s box as the zonal marking system once again proved that you have to have fantastic defenders to do it with, and being a skint Championship club, we don’t! Sinclair’s poor corner was flicked on by Parry and Steven MacLean found himself unmarked in the six yard box and he had the simplest of tasks to fire past Camp. Shocking! 

Five minutes later Rangers were all at sea again as Cardiff broke through midfield. Parry galloped down the right and MacLean and Sinclair burst into the box to attack his cross. It arrived with the once more unmarked MacLean and he somehow contrived to head wide of what is as close to an open goal as he could have got. 

Shortly before the break the same two players were in the box again, this time a ball from the other side created havoc and MacLean once again missed his chance. His goal aside, which I reckon Nygaard could have scored, he showed why Dave Jones has moved to bring in Fowler and Hasselbaink! 

It was clear that Gregory had torn into the players at the break but Mancienne almost gave a goal away from the off with a ridiculous piece of play. He tried to weave his way past two Cardiff players on half way and was robbed of the ball and Gavin Rae was in on goal. As he steadied himself Stewart came swooping in and managed to deny him with a brilliant tackle.  

Rangers then went to the other end and produced their only moment of fluid football in the entire game. Ephraim cut in from the wing and the ball was played into the feet of Nardiello and his neat back flick found Rowlands who for once had galloped forward from the middle in support of the attack. He immediately moved the ball wide into the path of Moore who steadied himself and fired across Cardiff keeper Turnbull only to see him get the slightest touch and the ball bounce to safety off the foot of the far post.  

Nardiello missed a great chance to equalise when he robbed the fragile flower that is Glenn Loovens of the ball inside the box. Whilst the Dutchman dallied the R’s striker nipped in and was only foiled by a fine save from Turnbull. What made the save from Turnbull even better is that he had been called on to do precious little in the game and could have been excused for letting his concentration dip. 

Only three minutes later the game was effectively over as Cardiff scored their second after some more slack Rangers defending. A ball from the left was controlled by Sinclair and knocked back to Rae who in turn found McPhail who had run unchallenged from midfield. His cross to the back post saw Parry get in front of Rehman and he powered a header into the net leaving Camp with no chance. 

Hogan Ephraim was starting to see a lot of the ball but he was cutting back onto his right foot every time he found space and must have produced the same cross about five times! The near post ball was gathered easily by Turnbull time and again, what was annoying though was the fact that nobody even tried to gamble and make that run. Instead they stood waiting for the far post ball instead of trying to force the issue. 

Gregory threw Nygaard on, perhaps in an effort to cheer up the fans with his comedy attempts at ball control. There isn’t a bit of the blokes body that will enable him to trap a ball and let it stay within five yards of him! We might as well have Michelangelo’s David up front, that might keep the Italians happy and at least he would show some bollocks!  

The second change saw Ward come on for Moore and he immediately went and played wide on the right. Why? The bloke has shown he is nothing but inept in that role and with Rowlands totally anonymous in the middle surely it would have been better to play Ward in the middle and shift Rowly wide?  

Ward was handed a gilt edged chance to at least grab a goal back as a ball came right across the box to him at the far post. What was needed was a steely eyed determination to throw himself at the ball without fear of getting hurt. What we got was a half hearted waft at the ball that didn’t cause Turnbull to bat an eyelid. 

In truth, anything Rangers had managed to get out of this game would have denied Cardiff a richly deserved victory. They were the better side by a long distance and with Rangers struggling to create anything of note they really had very little to worry about.

Things will have to improve up at Burnley next week as a return of one point from three games won’t be acceptable and if the much talked about Briatore takeover actually comes off then I think the boss might find himself looking nervously at that director’s box in the coming weeks. 

Man of the Match – Hogan Ephraim. In a game of very poor performances Ephraim showed that he has the ability to beat a player but the final ball could use some work, best of a very poor bunch

simon@qprnet.com