Rangers and Wycombe Wanderers played out a yawn inducing pre-season friendly at Adams Park on Saturday afternoon. Whilst it was a good chance to run the rule over the new lads the game didn’t have much going for it, a sensational Martin Rowlands goal aside.

Gregory threw both of Friday’s signings in from the off. Camp was in goal behind a back four of Mancienne, Shimmin, Stewart and Curtis. Nardiello, Walton, Bolder and Rowlands were in midfield with Blackstock and Jones up front. The home side included Tom(my) Williams from the off much to the enjoyment of the R’s fans station near the tea bar.

It was the home side that looked brighter from the off as Rangers seemed a little guilty of overplaying at the back. Mancienne looked uncomfortable at full back, as he so often does, and alongside him Shimmin seemed to be passing the ball for the sake of it rather than trying to actually go anywhere with it. Little passes to Stewart were playing him into trouble and invariably the ball was getting rolled back to Camp and he could do little more than punt it up field.

Ex Brentford striker Scott McGleish had a dip from well over thirty yards but you won’t beat a keeper of Camp’s quality from out there with such a tame effort. Soon after he had tried an overhead kick of sorts and again this was easily gathered by the new R’s stopper.

John Sutton, younger brother of pointy elbowed tosspot Chris Sutton, then fired straight at Camp after Walton appeared to be trodden on in midfield and robbed of the ball. Rangers had only managed to eek out one chance so far when Jones barely connected with a Rowlands free kick and the ball sailed well wide of the target.

Damion Stewart was his usual commanding self at the heart of the defence and he needed to be as Shimmin seemed to be struggling under the high ball. He seems to lack neck power to get his headers a decent distance and invariably the ball was plopping at a Wycombe midfielders feet and relieving little pressure. 

Ray Jones found his way into referee Singh’s notebook after a couple of brusque challenges on Wycombe defenders in quick succession. Just as it seemed the half was going to end with the 0-0 score line it warranted Rowlands produced a moment of magic. 

A through ball from Walton was handled on the deck by Wanderers defender David McCracken and Rowlands stepped up to asses the angle. The ball was outside the near post and it seemed a big ask for him to go round the wall into that corner so instead he wrapped his foot round it Beckham style and went across the front. Keeper Scott Shearer was completely done and the ball flew past him right into the top corner. It was a fantastic effort and really not befitting the game as a whole! 

Wycombe came close to levelling just before the halftime whistle when McGleish got his third effort of the half on target. This time a looping header forced Camp to backtrack and flip it over the bar. 

Gregory didn’t make any changes at the break but it was clear that the players had been told to be a bit more incisive with their passing and stop tapping it about at the back for no good reason. The flanks were suddenly in play and the game seemed to improve (well a little bit anyway) as a result. 

Ten minutes into the half Shimmin, Nardiello and Jones made way for Timoska, Moore and Sahar. This meant Curtis moving to right back, Mancienne moving into the middle and Timoska playing at left back. Immediately Mancienne looked far more at home and Timoska brought a bit of vigour on that side. Moore was playing wide right, a position in which Nardiello had little impact but that is hardly surprising given the way we played first half. 

Camp then produced two excellent saves in quick succession to show why the R’s fans hold him in such high regard. Firstly he went full length to his left to palm a Sutton strike onto the post and then he had to get down low as Timoska almost bagged an own goal as he slid in to rob the onrushing Easter. Camp’s work for the day was done now and Cole came on for the final twenty five minutes. 

Rangers were trying to play a bit and Walton and Bolder were certainly getting more involved. They can both play a bit but they are hardly the creative midfielder we have been crying out for. It was noticeable that Rowlands was seeing far more of the ball now and he skipped past his full back a couple of times only to see his crosses blocked. Sahar was showing some nice movement into the channels and you can see that he certainly has the ability to cause some problems. 

With just over ten minutes left Rehman and Nygaard came on for Curtis and Blackstock. Nygaard produce a typically Nygaard like performance, his first two touches resulted in him just falling over, he then controlled a ball on his chest that landed about ten yards away and had the Wycombe bench scattering for cover and then he was played into acres of space by a great Moore pass only to completely ignore the waiting Sahar in the middle and knock the ball back twenty yards! Just another day at the office… 

Sam Timoska came to Rangers’ rescue with a great last ditch tackle on Easter after the Welsh striker had broken the R’s offside trap. He looked about five yards off when the ball was sent his way but I suspect a certain former Fulham player might have been sleeping in at right back to play him on! Easter dallied as he couldn’t believe he hadn’t been flagged and that allowed Timoska to snake a leg in and whip the ball away. 

Stefan Bailey was thrown on for the last five minutes and produced the tackle of the day! A 50/50 ball in the middle of the park was met with a ferocious sliding tackle that left the poor Wycombe player in a crumpled heap on the deck! Classic Bailey!  

The final whistle came and brought a pretty tepid encounter to a close. Mercifully there was no injury time to sit through despite countless stoppages! A quick new boys report; Camp looked as classy as ever, Walton worked hard in the middle and will certainly get his foot in, Mancienne looked a bit lost at full back but calm and assured in the middle, Sahar looks to have decent movement and a good touch and once he and the players get attuned to one another then he will be a real asset. 

We need to start creating some more chances, the goal yesterday was our only real shot in anger and that won’t cut it when the season starts. Pre-season is often a pretty unreliable barometer of how the season will go but do need to ramp up the creativity somewhat. 

The delights of Harrow Borough’s Earlsmead ground await us on Tuesday night and I would think that a few changes might be made with St Aimie and Chelsea trialist Simmonds given a chance to impress.