Gavin Peacock and Ben Askar also returned to the starting line up with doudou dropping to the bench. As I wasn't at the game this mach report is written by Tony Johnson from the RTID web site Rangers won this game possibly more comfortably than the scoreline suggests, despite having to contend with Chesterfield's most dangerous player, a hopelessly incompetant and blatantly home team biaised referee throughout the entire game. The fact that we only really played properly for a fifteen minute or so period in the second half, scoring three goals and looking likely to score with every attack goes to show partly how poor the Spireites are and how much further up this league we could be if the players only believed in themselves that bit more. The first half was very much a non event with neither side able to string enough passes together to create anything like a realistic chance of a goal. Holloway played three at the back, with Palmer on the left side and Ben Aska and Shittu making up a very solid looking back line. Palmer, unsurprisingly, struggled occasionally as he was playing on the wrong side for a right footer. However, he did a good job of helping debutant Danny Murphy at left wing back (Forbes was his opposite number on the right), winning a lot of aerial balls that were pumped towards the diminutive fullback. With Rose in midfield as well as the five defenders strung across the pitch, we didn't too much to offer to unlock a robust home defence. Peacock worked hard in the midfield area, and at times showed that he is capable of playing at a level somewhat above our current one, but he and Connolly (playing not as wide as of late and thus getting into the game more) alone were unable to provide much for Thomson and Gallen up front. In fact Gallen's ability to hold the ball up seemed to have deserted him, and after a reasonable start, the home team started getting more into the game as we kept giving away possession too easily. However, Connolly limped off after about thirty minutes to be replaced by DouDou, although nothing much changed up to half time as we seemed content to defend and keep things tight. After the interval things carried on much in the same vein, with our possession limited but we were at least attempting to get the ball to DouDou's feet in the area behind the strikers, and on a couple of occasions he threatened to open up the Spireites defence by running with the ball - a tactic they clearly had no answer to. Gallen also missed a straight forward headed chance from a superb cross by Murphy by heading straight at the keeper from close range. However, the referee decided to get more fully into the game (he had been consistently ignoring shirt pulling and illegal jumping by Chesterfield players from the start - one incident in the first half when a home striker blatantly backed into Shittu only for the ref to give the kick against big Danny was laughable in the extreme) and gave a penalty against us when the ball struck Murphy on the hand from point blank range. But it seemed at the time that taking the lead would perhaps be an unwise action by our opponents as we seemed somehow to be playing well within ourselves. And so it proved, as we stepped up a couple of gears and they simply had no answer as we ran in three goals in the next ten minutes. Suddenly, good movement off the ball combined with accurate passing saw Gallen with ball at his feet in the box. Thomson was just inside him unmarked, but Kevin chose to jink past his man and was unceremoniously tripped. The defender, being the last man, should have been sent off, but was not even yellow carded by the referee who, it now became obvious was nothing more than a cheat, a fact which was to become even clearer later. Thomson despatched the resulting spot kick with his usual calm assurance. In a couple of minutes we had taken the lead when Thomson was brought down in the box only for the ref to give just a corner. Danny Shittu powered home a header from Murphy's kick. With DouDou now running riot in midfield and seemingly unstoppable it was only a matter of time before we scored again, and we didn't have to wait long. The little African made yet another burst from midfield and set Gallen free on the left. His shot was parried by the keeper, but straight out to Rose who side footed home from the edge of the box. Gallen went very close with another effort and then we took our foot off the pedal instead of pressing home the advantage. We gave Howard a free run to within shooting range and failed to close him down at all. His excellent strike found the top corner and it was nail biting time, frustratingly in a game we should have had wrapped up. A blatant dive perpetrated
on Shittu (clearly targeted as he had already been booked)
saw the appalling referee red card big Danny (This must
be appealed against vigorously by the Club) when he
never touched the player in question. However, the remaining
ten men held out for the remaining minutes with no real
alarms, Bonnot coming on and doing particularly well
in holding possession in the opponents half of the pitch
to deny them the opportunity to mount too many attacks.
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