Rangers missed the opportunity to climb off the bottom of the Championship table thanks to another display of suicidal defending. Two stunning goals from Akos Buzsaky weren’t enough as Rangers’ continuing fallibility on set pieces and under the crossed ball did for them yet again. 

Following on from the midweek defeat by Crystal Palace there were changes to the line up but incredibly no changes in the back four. Camp was in goal behind Malcolm, Stewart, Rehman and Barker. Rowlands, Bolder, Leigertwood and Sinclair were in midfield with Buzsaky playing in behind lone striker Vine. Timoska was fit enough to return to the bench and youth team striker Angelo Balanta was once again named amongst the subs.

The game kicked off in atrocious conditions that, along with a huge jam on the M1, had made the journey up to North Lincolnshire an arduous one. The rain was lashing down and the wind swirled around, the low stands of Glanford Park offering little protection to the players.  

Both teams tried to test the keepers from long distance early on to take advantage of the inclement weather. Vine’s shot never got as far as Murphy in the Scunny goal where as Camp had to be alert to watch Goodwin’s effort all the way into his gloves. The R’s fans didn’t have to wait long for the opening goal though and it came in stunning style. 

A long ball forward from Camp was fed into the path of Buzsaky and after getting the ball out of his feet he crashed a swerving fight footer past the helpless Murphy. He had hit a couple of screamers in the warm up but none as sweetly as this. The R’s fans were delirious and a five foot inflatable cock was batted around the away end in some sort of perverted celebration ritual!  

Rangers were well in control at this point and Buzsaky was at the heart of absolutely everything. His corners were causing all sorts of trouble in the home penalty area and he went close with another shot that Murphy had to have two goes at gathering. The Irons keeper looked pretty solid all game but he rarely gathered anything cleanly and if we had a real poacher of a striker on the books it might have turned up some joy. 

Nigel Adkins’ men finally started to get a foothold in the game after seeing out the initial R’s flurry. It was no surprise that most of the joy was coming from set pieces as the R’s markers were all over the place. Twice Andy Crosby ran off the back of Leigertwood to head over the bar and Butler left Rehman for dead only to see his effort off target also.

It was absolute chaos at the back. Skipper Bolder tried to sort it out but just shouting “come on” and making circular motions with his arms wasn’t really helping anyone! Rehman was bringing out the worst in Stewart, as we have seen happen so often. His panicky, non-committed style gets the big Jamaican on edge and then he hits the panic button also. There were at least two occasions when neither of them attacked high balls that should have been simple to deal with. 

With twenty four minutes played the home side were back on level terms. A corner on the Rangers right wasn’t struck well at all and came in low to the near post. Rehman attacked it and missed it and Martin Paterson held off a non-existent challenge from Barker to steer home from inside the six yard box. It was typical of the type of goal Rangers have been giving away this season. The sooner we get some defenders in that understand the concept of defending the better! 

Both teams were having to battle the conditions as much as the opposition, referee Hegley wasn’t taking conditions into account at all as he turned in a fussy display that meant that there was precious little chance of any flow developing. He was also angering the R’s players and fans by seemingly awarding almost everything to the home side, it seemed odd that the home fans were chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing”, although that may have been aimed at the R’s back four! 

Scunthorpe should have been ahead ten minutes before the break when a ball was fed from left to right and into the path of former Sheffield United player Kevan Hurst. He faced up Barker and once again the full back didn’t make much of an effort with his challenge. Hurst got his shot away and it skidded past Camp only to hit the inside of the post and somehow screw across the goal line and past the far post.  

Rangers made the home side pay for the miss three minutes before the break when Buzsaky scored another blinder. Scott Sinclair, totally anonymous and clearly thinking more about playing for Chelsea than the R’s, suddenly turned up and left full back and fellow Chelsea loanee Jack Cork trailing in his wake. Two Scunthorpe players converged and sent the winger tumbling close to the goal line and about five ten yards in from the corner flag. 

The R’s defenders made their way up but Buzsaky used them as a decoy and stepped up to whip a sumptuous strike past Murphy and into the far corner. Another belter from Buz and it took him to the top of the Rangers scoring charts with a rather paltry three!

There was still more to come from Buzsaky after he skipped away from two challenges in midfield and cracked in a low left footed strike that Murphy saved brilliantly at his near post. Despite the appalling conditions the Hungarian midfielder was having a fantastic game. 

Rangers went in ahead at the break, they had caused the home side a few problems going forward but such was the amateurish nature of the defending at times it seemed incredible that the home side weren’t comfortably winning. Scunthorpe started the second half like they thought exactly the same and Camp was called into action in the first minute. 

A cross from the right came into the box and midfielder Matt Sparrow flew in and got a decent connection. Camp managed to plunge low to his right and beat the ball away. Camp produced an even better save shortly after as he was almost caught out by a huge wind assisted punt from Murphy. The ball kicked up off the turf and was destined for the top corner until the back peddling Camp managed to claw it over the bar. 

Nine minutes into the half the inevitable Scunthorpe equaliser arrived. Hurst drove to the by-line and sent over a cross that Camp misjudged completely. The wind seemed to catch hold of it and it sailed over the keepers head and clattered back off the far post. The defenders, as has become customary in recent games, made precious little effort to intervene and left winger Jonathan Forte strolled in unchecked and fired home.

Rangers managed to shake themselves out of their malaise and started to get some attacking play going. Sinclair reappeared again and sent in a low cross after being played in by a lovely through ball from Buzsaky. Bolder was sliding in at the back stick but couldn’t quite stretch enough to toe the ball home.  

Scunthorpe were inches away from the lead themselves when a long range free kick flicked off the wall and seemed to have Camp beaten only for it to fly wide. At the other end Buzsaky continued his one man quest to vanquish Scunthorpe as he jinked into the box but fired a fierce left footed shot over the top when he really should have done better with it. 

De Canio hooked Rehman and sent Timoska on in his place with just under twenty minutes to play. Three minutes later Nygaard went on in place of the disinterested Sinclair and could easily have given away a penalty before he had even touched the ball. 

Scunthorpe had a right wing corner and as the taker stepped forward Nygaard and Butler got in a right old tangle and the defender ended up on the deck. Luckily the ball wasn’t in play so the ref just ticked Nygaard off and on they went, two second later and Rangers could have been staring down the barrel of 3-2. 

Rangers had a late chance to win the game when Vine cut in from the left side and curled an effort at goal that Murphy once again held at the second attempt. Then followed a flurry of late bookings as Paul Collingwood look-a-like Grant Hegley flashed a yellow at Nygaard for a cumbersome attempt at a header and then he showed Vine a yellow card after he had the cheek to be chopped down on the halfway line! The booking was a costly one as it was Vine’s fifth of the season and he now misses Wolves. Bolder also collected his fifth in the first half and misses the same game. 

The end of the game brought a certain degree of relief from the R’s fans as this could have gone a lot worse! Some of the defending was absurd at times and against a better side this could have been a hammering. Upon reflection in the wee hours waiting for the Hatton fight to start, I came to the conclusion that we were actually not bad on the attack ourselves but it is hard to notice that when watching the game though your fingers! 

A tough trip to Burnley on Tuesday night isn’t likely to yield much with The Clarets in a decent run of form since Owen Coyle took over the reigns. If we defend set pieces like we have done in the last few games then a big, well drilled side like Burnley will murder us. 

We need Mancienne back, we need Timoska back in and truth be told we could use Kanyuka back in the side just to give us some aerial presence. Rehman and Malcolm just aren’t good enough and Barker isn’t a whole lot better. If we can get the back four to tighten up a bit in the next five games we might stand a chance of not being miles behind when the wallet comes out in January. Might being the operative word… 

Man of the Match – Akos Buzsaky. Twice this season he has been deployed behind a lone striker and has done superbly twice. His goals were stunning and he could have got a couple more.

simon@qprnet.com