A strange night for a football match as Rangers kicked off against Bristol City for our first taste of Thursday night football. This is all due to the new television deal with ITV and affected the attendance for the game and must have lost the club some money. Considering the fact it was a Thursday game though the crowd was better than expected with Bristol City bringing over 2,000 fans (not 5,000 as stated on Capital Gold last night, your supposed to be a London station not Bristol lads).

Holloway must have been delighted to welcome back a few players from injury as we started the game with a better shape than we did on Saturday. Paul Bruce came back at left back with Alex Bonnot dropped to the bench and Marcus Bignot back in midfield. Robert Taylor replaced Dave Mcewen up front and we started quite well playing with a lot of confidence.

The passing was better than Monday but we continue to lack the final pass to set up chances and Bristol City looked the more likely to score in the first 45 minutes. Chris Day was forced into a few saves as Tony Thorpe was looking very dangerous for the visitors and they had obviously targeted Paul Bruce as the weak link as he struggled in the first half half. Rangers best chances came from a Paul Bruce free kick which went just over and Andy Thomson was put in on a couple of occasions but Bristol City managed to cut out the danger on each occasion.

It wasn't the greatest game to watch on tv but Rangers fans amused themselves giving iTV some stick. We sang the Match of the Day theme tune as well as telling ITV what we think of them and how Des Lynam is a traitor. All very funny stuff but most people had headed for the bar by this point as a 0-0 looked on the cards. The referee must have been bored and decided to get himself on tv by booking Ben Askar for kicking the ball away, pretty pathetic and he’d have let it go if ten men and a dog hadn’t been watching on ITV Digital.

Kicking towards the loft in the second half got the crowd even louder and the referee then made sure he got his name in the papers as well by sending off Ben Askar for a second booking. Totally unjust sending off but it inspired Rangers and Ian Holloway made a bold decision. Holloway took off the two strikers and replaced them with Mcewen and Leroy Griffiths (who got another big ovation from the Rangers fans).

We switched to a 3-3-3 formation and tried to attack the visitors. Dou Dou went up front whilst Mcewen stayed wide and Bignot and Forbes seemed to all over the pitch as they worked so hard and played superbly well. City were on top though and had a number of excellent chances, one header hit the bar whilst Palmer cut out several great opportunities whilst Day had to be at his best to keep it level.

It wasn’t all one way though as Karl Connolly produced an excellent curling shot which went just wide and a long range shot from Perry was pushed out by the keeper and Dou Dou met the rebound but Stowell managed to save again. It was turning into a pretty good game with both sides looking to win the game and as time went on we looked the more likely to get the winner.

Leroy was causing problems up front with his strength and pace whilst Dou Dou is always a threat running at defenders but at the end 0-0 was a flair result and gives us hope that if we can add goals we might have a successful season ahead of us.

Man of the Match: Steve Palmer

1. Chris Day: Gives his defence confidence and again made some good saves at vital times. 7/10

17. Terrell Forbes: Outstanding in defence making some great tackles and looks to be a real star in the making. 9/10

3. Paul Bruce: Struggles badly in the first half but improved after the break and made some vital tackles. 7/10

4. Steve Palmer: Always encouraged his teammates and was left 2 against 1 several times but managed to stop the danger every time. 9/10

28. Aziz Ben Askar: A strange sending off from a fussy ref but before that Ben was excellent again. 7/10

2. Mark Perry: Neat and tidy in midfield and seemed to improve when we went down to ten men. 7/10

22. Marcus Bignot: Covers every blade of grass with his non stop running and closing down. There is so much to his game though his passing is improving, he tackles superbly and is just outstanding at the moment. 9/10

10. Karl Connolly: Pretty quiet on the left and still doesn’t look fully fit. 6/10

29. Dou Dou: Showed some flashes of what he is capable of but looked better when he came into the middle. 7/10

18. Robert Taylor: Showed some nice touches in the first half but didn’t look like scoring. Linked well with Thomson and you can tell they’ve played together before. 7/10

27. Andy Thomson: Looked more alive than in previous games but Holloway was right to take him off as we needed more pace up front. 7/10

14. Leroy Griffiths: strong, powerful and could be a real star if he stays clear of injuries. 7/10

19. Dave Mcewen: His best game so far mainly as he got more of the ball. 7/10

26. Alex Bonnot: On for the last five minutes and kept the ball moving in midfield. 7/10