Things started well for Rangers when Scott Donnelly gave them the lead with the game still in its opening exchanges. Picking the ball up in midfield he swerved his way past four would be tacklers before picking his spot past Alan Blayney. It was a super goal from a player bang in form at the moment.

Barely two minutes later and it could have been two when Shabazz Baidoo attacked a cross from Aaron Brown and the ball ended up in the net. It looked as though the ref had given the goal at first but before we knew it they were playing again. It was seemingly chalked off for hand ball though that was hard to see from where we were sitting.

Things started to go wrong shortly after when Federico Turienzo beat Cole with a brilliant header that flew right into the postage stamp. The marking was slack but take nothing away from the quality of the finish. Soon after it was 2-1 to the Seagulls when Turienzo stooped to finish at the far post. Both goals had come from pinpoint crosses from the diminutive Dean Cox.

Rangers had not threatened since the disallowed goal and the way we were playing we weren’t likely to. Donnelly was a one man band and Moore and Baidoo just could not link at all. A lot of this seemed to be down to Moore not having any sort of striker’s instinct whatsoever. He seems to react rather than anticipate and as such he is snuffed out all too easily.

After the break Brighton rattled in another three goals within the first twenty five minutes. First up former Southern England Diving Champion Kerry Mayo crashed home a brilliant drive from twenty five yards leaving Cole helpless.

The next goal was a terrific diving header from Chris McPhee. Cox took an out swinging corner from the right and unfettered by markers McPhee was able to time his run perfectly and dive headlong at the ball. Once again Cole was powerless to intervene as the ball flashed into the net.

Not long after Turienzo was claiming hit hat-trick when a ball in from Albert Jarrett found him unmarked in the six yard box. His volley was by no means a great one but from that range Cole was once again beaten through no fault of his own.

Five goals conceded and not a hint of marking for any of them. Shimmin was having an absolute disaster and misjudged almost every header and clearance he attempted. Ukah and Hislop were as bad and only some decent covering from Johnson stopped things being worse. Mind you, he hardly played like Bobby Moore himself!

Waddock had tried to change things by switching to 4-3-3 and brining Giant Ray Jones on to be the focal point of the attacks. It was a shame that they provided him almost nothing to work with. Baidoo had come to life a bit more and was having a decent tussle with Adam El-Abd at the heart of the Seagulls defence. Unfortunately he had left his calm finishing in the locker as he sent a host of chances wide of the target.

Rangers finally pulled one back in the last five minutes when Ugo Ukah slammed the ball into the roof of the net from close range following a Langley corner from the left. In truth it was more than a diabolical showing ad deserved.

Not much can be taken from this game other than the performance of Donnelly (especially his goal) and the fact that a few players got ninety minutes under their belts. What it did show is that a fair number of these boys have a distance to go before Olly will be requiring them for the first team again.