Luckily for us, the strikers finishing was poor which meant we held on for the win. The Zaire-born forward ought to have done better with a weak header from left-back Joe Keith's cross after 9 minutes, which Lee Harper comfortably gathered. Peter Crouch managed to bundle his way past defender Aaron Skelton but with just Brown to beat, scuffed his shot wide of the target. Rangers had a lucky escape when in attempting to pick out Baraclough, Harper cleared the ball to Colchester's veteran midfield man Micky Stockwell, whose 25-yard effort sailed just over the bar. Two minutes later Rangers were ahead. Ian Baraclough's ball from the left found Kiwomya and he fired past goalkeeper Simon Brown from just inside the penalty area. It gave us a lead we did not deserve. We were quickly back on the defensive and after getting the better of Mark Perry, Lua Lua drilled the ball across the face of goal but none of his team-mates were able to add the touch which would almost certainly have diverted it into the net. Lua Lua then embarrassed Ready on the edge of the penalty area, turning inside and then outside him, before nutmegging him and steering a low ball in to Karl Duguid, who was denied by a fine saving tackle by Clarke Carlisle. The Rangers defender sprang across from his right-sided position to clear the danger before Duguid could shoot. Lua Lua showed why Newcastle made a bid for him in the close season by again breezing past Ready in first-half injury time but showed why they only offered £300,000 by shooting tamely at Harper.
Moments later, Carlisle and then Perry came to Rangers' rescue. After Carlisle somehow managed to turn Keith's dangerous cross over the bar with Lua Lua ready to score from close range, Perry hacked the ball off the line after Jason Dozzell got his head to the resulting corner. Finally the interval arrived to give Rangers some respite. And they started the second-half quite brightly, with Crouch laying the ball off nicely to Richard Langley and then being denied by Steve McGavin's sliding clearance as he attempted to meet Langley's return pass. Skelton fired over and Lua Lua dribbled across the face of the area before seeing his shot saved by Harper, while Keith rode two challenges before also bringing a save from the overworked Rangers keeper. Harper marred an otherwise flawless display when he spilled Lua Lua's 73rd minute shot into the path of Stockwell, who steered the rebound into the net. But following Perry, Harper and Carlisle, it was the linesman's turn to rescue Rangers and Stockwell was penalised for offside. Stuart Wardley was, like others in less traditional silver and black hoops, anonymous for most of the game. But he very nearly scored a second for Rangers with five minutes to go, when his shot was brilliantly turned away by Brown. Rangers might have had a penalty when Kiwomya tumbled in the box, before Colchester twice went close in stoppage time. After Dozzell headed inches over at the far post, Harper produced his best save of the night to tip away Lua Lua's right-footed shot. It secured a victory for Rangers in their first meeting with Colchester since they beat them in the League Cup in 1967 en route to a Wembley triumph.
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Our
first step on the road to a major cup final saw us take a 1-0
win back to West London. It was not a good performance though
as Colchester had looked the better side and striker Lomana Tresor
Lua Lua's pace and trickery gave QPR cause for concern throughout.
The
half-time whistle couldn't come quickly enough for Rangers but
there was still time for Lua Lua to yet again escape the clutches
of Ready with ease before slipping a perfectly weighted pass through
for the onrushing Duguid, who lost his balance and overran the
ball wide of the post. Colchester's appeals for a penalty were
waved away by referee Mike Fletcher as Duguid claimed he had been
tripped by Harper.