match report by Jonno from Rangers Till die Web Site at http://www.rtid.co.uk/

Another week and another appalling display in a match almost totally devoid of any quality football.

For most of the game it was impossible to tell which side was which as both sides huffed and puffed to little or no avail, and that is a serious indictment of any team of full time professionals playing against part timers from so much lower down the football pyramid.

Yet again, Holloway accommodated his favourites, this time unbelievably dropping Forbes to the bench so that Rose, Palmer and Shittu could all get a game. They rewarded him with very poor displays.

With Digby replacing the suspended Royce in goal, the back three was Carlisle, Shittu and Palmer, with the four midfield players consisting of Williams and Burgess wide and Rose and Bircham in the centre. Up front were Oli, Connolly and Thomson.

The home side looked confident, predictably enough given their recent good record, and had a couple of dangerous looking attacks as they tried to catch us with early balls over the top. Shittu, a player whose confidence seems to have totally disappeared, made a couple of basic errors and nearly let them in as defensively we looked as disorganised at the back as we usually do at the start of every game.

Once we settled down though we looked more solid and Vauxhall chances of scoring diminished. In fact the longer the game went on the more it seemed that they were happy to settle for the income that a replay would generate. However, we were completely unable to create anything going forward as we continually failed to retain posession, with far too much long ball hoofing from the back up to the front players who simply are unable to win the ball and hold onto it.

With the admirable exception of Bircham, who looked a class above everyone else (as of course he should), there was no attempt to get the ball down and pass it, and virtually no running off the ball as it appears that confidence is so low that no one actually wants the ball.

On the few occasions that we did move the ball about quickly on the ground it was obvious that was the way to get the result we wanted, but those occasions were few and far between. Thomson got clear onto a through ball but finished woefully and Connolly had a shot just over the bar but that was about it after a fairly even and scrappy first half.

Second half and Forbes was reinstated at the expense of the hapless Rose. Perhaps Holloway has finally realised that Rose is not the answer in midfield as he was totally anonymous in the first half, as well as pulling out of a number of challenges as he clearly did not fancy it at all. His one contribution was to get back and dispossess a home striker as he was about to shoot but that does not excuse an absolutely woeful performance.

Unfortunately, Rose's absence then just meant we had to endure Palmer in midfield in his place as we switched to a 4-4-2 with Forbes and Williams at full back and Connolly dropping back to left midfield. There was a slight improvement and, as the Unibond side tired, we managed to get hold of the ball more, but with Thomson and Oli still not being able to retain the ball up front our attacks continually petered out.

We had a decent shout for a penalty when Oli turned well, beat a couple of players in the box and was brought down. This was turned down by an otherwise reasonably competant, if over fussy, referee. We had a number of corners, but not one was delivered at all well, which contrasted embarrasingly with our lower league opponents whose delivery was so much better for set pieces.

Oli was stretchered off with a leg injury and we finally saw the return of Gallen. This of course made a huge difference and suddenly we were playing some football again, the first time for some weeks, as Gallen was holding the ball up and bringing others into the game.

The difference in the rest of the side was discernible as well, as suddenly confidence levels improved throughout the team. Very worrying though that we depend so much on one player. Even so, we still couldn't fashion a realistic chance of a goal as our set pieces continued to be laughable.

That was always a worry, because in a game of this kind there is always the chance of a refereeing decision, a freak goal or mistake meaning that you concede a goal, despite the fact that the home side were now resorting to wasting time to hang on for the draw.

Fortunately, none of those things happened though, so we're still in the Cup - but Holloway clearly has to make changes.

Very few good points from the game, but Bircham's second excellent midfield performance in a row and the return of Oliver Burgess (desperately tired towards the end) and of course Kevin Gallen were what needed to be kept in mind on the long journey home.