Plymouth Argyle and QPR were nothing more than a sideshow to a quite extraordinary display from referee Steve Bratt at Home Park on Boxing Day. Whilst the players were probably quite happy to just have a game of football they couldn’t take into account the sheer ineptitude of an official that looks petty enough to make it all the way to the top. 

De Canio made a couple of changes following the home win against Colchester United on Saturday. He stuck with his 4-4-1-1 formation that he seems to favour away from home with Camp in goal behind a back four of Malcolm, Walton, Rehman and Barker. Ainsworth, Leigertwood, Bolder and Rowlands were in midfield with Buzsaky playing behind Vine. Kanyuka was back in the match day sixteen for the first time this season.

Rangers started the game a little sloppily, Barker was caught dallying in possession and then failed to press Norris as he burst from midfield to fire wide. Walton wasn’t impressed and told the left back what he thought of that in no uncertain terms. It was nice to see someone actually taking responsibility at the back as they usually play like they are mute. 

Hayles and his son, Ebanks-Blake combined minutes later to send the former in on goal following good work out wide. Luckily Camp was quickly off his line to avert any danger. Rangers took the lead shortly afterwards and there seems to be some confusion surrounding the goal. 

Buzsaky, curiously allowed by Plymouth to play despite the fact that he is still their player, flighted a lovely ball over Connolly into the path of Rowlands. Rowly charged into the box and jinked past a challenge before firing it across goal to Ainsworth. The right winger slid the ball back into the middle where Vine was on hand to prod home from a yard. Some of the reports seem to have given it to Ainsworth and the Sky people seem to be giving it to Ainsworth despite the fact that Vine has blatantly finished it! I think the reactions of the two players are a good indicator, Vine was running round like a loon and Ainsworth wasn’t. 

David Norris found space in the box to head straight at Camp before Plymouth missed what has to be called an absolute sitter at this level. Buzsaky conceded a free kick wide and became the first in referee Bratt’s list of ten bookings and in truth it was probably the only booking he made that deserved it. The ball in from Halmosi caught the R’s defence out and Nalis met the ball with only Camp to beat. The R’s keeper blocked the ball away from his feet but the chance should have been buried. 

On the stroke of halftime Rowlands became booking number two for daring to leave his feet in the tackle. The Home Park crowd are very vociferous when it comes to appealing for decisions, they always have been and many a time I have seen them virtually ref games here. I wish the Loftus Road crowd could do this and it’s bloody effective! Bratt was struggling to be consistent though and challenges from one side that were just a free kick were a free kick and booking for the other. That’s not to say he wasn’t infuriating the home players also though, they seemed to be getting the poor decisions at this point and us the poor bookings. 

The whistle brought a tepid half to the close but things livened up after the break and Bratt was straight into the action. Halmosi fired a cross into the box with Walton five feet away from him. Walton couldn’t get out of the way and the ball hit his arms, which in truth were outstretched. I think it was a harsh decision and probably one you would expect to get if you were at home with the crowd behind you but not on the road. Once the pen was awarded the outcome was in little doubt as the deadly Ebanks-Blake stepped up and crashed a superb strike into the bottom corner.  

Play had barely restarted when the Bratt was off again with three more daft yellow cards. First Ainsworth slightly over ran a ball and stretched to try and win it back and caught Hodges fractionally late. Free kick? Yes. Booking? Never. 

Then Plymouth’s scorer got into a tangle with Walton whilst play had switched to the right wing. Bratt had followed the ball and wide and only seemed to switch his attention to the altercation when other players joined in. It was handbags and nothing more and as the ref hadn’t seen most of it, it seemed perplexing that he managed to book both protagonists. Just have a guess mate! 

The game really was pretty poor by this stage as Rangers failed to retain possession with Vine trying hard to cover the entire top end of the pitch but to no avail. At the other end the back four seemed to be coping with what Plymouth were chucking their way with Walton leading the troops in his first start for the club.  

De Canio decided to make his first change and he sent Nygaard on in place of Rowlands. This meant Vine went wide left and Nygaard played up on his own. Now we had a less mobile striker on to do the same job, I thought he should have hooked the ineffective Buzsaky at this point and played Nygaard with Vine.  

Bolder and Nygaard were soon into the Bratt’s book for bookings five and six for Rangers in this game with a tackle hardly worthy of the name. Bolder committed one foul too many and Nygaard committed just one foul! In truth Bolder can probably count himself a little unlucky as it was one of the only times he had actually managed to get close enough to a member of the opposition to actually kick him. Combined with his unnerving ability to pass the ball to anyone but a team mate, ref, ball boy, oppo, mascot, anyone but an R’s player, and this was quite a display from the man labelled by my dear old mum, Captain Crap! 

With twelve minutes to play De Canio finally withdrew Buzsaky and sent Blackstock on. Finally Rangers had two up top and funnily enough we started to keep the ball a little better and stretch Plymouth going the other way. From a corner soon after his introduction, Blackstock rose highest to meet an Ainsworth delivery and pulled a fine save from Larrieu.  

At the other end the continuing frailty from set pieces continued as a superb delivery from Halmosi was attacked by Hodges and the left back really should have done better from what was effectively a free header. He could only get a glancing touch on it and it flew harmlessly behind.

Then the most contentious moment of the game arrived with the game already deep into the four minutes of injury time. A high ball into the Plymouth area was attacked by Blackstock and as he won the header Seip smashed into the back of him to concede a late free kick in a dangerous area. Or so you would have thought! Incredibly the Bratt penalised Blackstock! Perhaps in winning the header he had deliberately not moved out of the way of a player he couldn’t see and who had no chance of making a connection with the ball? 

Plymouth suddenly charged to the other end and Barker conceded a needless corner. Halmosi once again sent in a great ball and this time Camp decided to come for it and got nowhere near it. There still seemed to be a chance to clear though and Malcolm and Nygaard were the two players nearest to the ball but they somehow managed to hack it against the bar! The ball fell invitingly for Ebanks-Blake and he really couldn’t miss from three yards and he rifled the ball into the roof of the net to hand Argyle a late but in truth, undeserved winner. 

You would think that would be enough but no, Bratt still had a trick up his wizards sleeve. Leigertwood became booking number seven for Rangers for a foul (I forgot to add that he had also managed to book two Plymouth players late on for nothing). Then as the teams were leaving the field of play it would seem that Legs couldn’t hang on to his fury any longer and he told Bratt exactly what he thought of him and his performance and managed to get himself sent off. It seems a straight red for dissent carries a two game ban meaning Legs will miss Watford and Leicester plus the Chelsea cup tie as it is his second sending off of the season.

This was more late heartbreak for Rangers and it has happened far too often this season. When you combine our inability to concentrate for the entire game and our inability to defend set pieces it is a pretty dangerous combination. A massive part of the problem for me seems to be the fact that we continue to invite pressure onto ourselves by not retaining the ball and not showing enough attacking intentions. For me the manager and players are equally culpable for both of those issues. Even when we beat Colchester it was like The Alamo for most of the second half and that was at home against one of the divisions worst sides.  

We now go to Watford who have been out of form at home for the last few weeks. If we play well and go and attack them then we have a bloody good chance of getting something. If we attack in the first half and then just sit back and defend in the second then they will cut us to ribbons. If we get beaten by the better team in a game of football then so be it, if we get beaten by a team that is struggling for home form because we decided not to attack them, then I am afraid I can’t stomach that. 

And a final word on Mr Bratt. This was a poor game that wasn’t helped by the bizarre mind of this referee. I said in my match preview that one of the problems with being at the bottom of the table is that you tend to get a lot of inexperienced referees and he was a case in point. Both sides suffered with his baffling decision making although it is only Rangers that will find themselves fined by the FA for collecting so many bookings. Perhaps the FA will look at the game and note that most of the bookings were not worthy of the lead in his pencil? Yeah right! Who am I kidding? He will be patted on the back by his bosses and told that he is doing a great job as he is the sort of myopic, petty, small minded pillock that could well be the natural successor to Rob Styles!  

Man of the Match – Simon Walton. It was hard to believe that Walton had missed all of the season bar the last couple of weeks. He looked strong and organised and I would like to see him alongside Stewart at Watford as he could be the organiser that he needs to help him perform. 

simon@qprnet.com