For the second time this season Rangers travelled to Tranmere but thankfully this time the game wasn’t called off halfway there.

With the supporters club coach sold out and no trains back to London, my girlfriend Carly kindly offered to drive to this Tuesday night game so we were both able to see Rangers game in hand.

As we approached Tranmere we drove past the Vauxhall Motors factory, which brought back some not very nice memories of an FA Cup game, which seems like a long time ago now. We arrived pretty early and were able to enjoy a drink the Mersey Clipper before the game before entering the stadium. We soon heard the team news and it was no shock to see Holloway make three changes after Saturdays poor showing. Gareth Ainsworth started his first game of 2004 replacing McLeod, Rose and Johnson both missed out with Bircham and Edghill recalled to the first eleven. It was a decent team and one, which the 800 or so Rangers fans who made the trip fancied to do well.

The game started poorly though for Rangers with the defence half asleep. Tranmere have a massive side so set pieces were going to be difficult and the first one should have seen them take the lead. A hopeful ball into the box saw two players unmarked at the far post and the side footed volley looped wide of the post when they really should have scored. The defence stood pointing at each other and were at it again soon after when a free header in the box went wide of the post.

Rangers woke up though and a good counter attack almost saw us take the lead. Furlong did well to find Gallen who had plenty of time but slightly rushed his shot and fired towards the top corner but the keeper made an excellent save pushing it out for a corner.

Rangers began to get on top and Marc Bircham fired a dangerous looking shot just wide from the edge of the box and things were looking bright for us. It was a very stop start game though with the ref and linesmen giving free kicks at every opportunity. The number of offisdes was ridiculous and the bloke seemed to love a yellow card.

A bad tackle from behind on Rowlands went unpunished, in fact an advantage was played in our favour, which saw us in the dangerous position of 40 yards out from goal with seven Tranmere players in between the goal and us. Great advantage by the ref there.

The yellow cards then began to flow. Gallen was booked for having his shirt pulled whilst Bignot got the strangest booking of the game and possibly the season. The ball was hoofed into the stand for a QPR throw in, the ball boy threw a new ball to Bignot who took the throw in and all of a sudden the original match ball was thrown back onto the pitch by Tranmere fans.

The ref stopped play and gave a throw in to Tranmere for reasons I must have missed. Bignot threw the new ball out and was shown a yellow card. Someone said he threw the ball out aggressively but it was hardly worth a booking and it was clear we had a ref from the Rob Styles school of referring which teaches you to always get more of a mention in match reports than the actual football match people have paid to watch.

Tranmere began to get on top of the first half with the two big strikers causing problems. Dadi had several chances to score and broke clear of the offside trap but lee Camp did superbly well to deny him.

Gnohere was next to save Rangers pathetic offside trap. A quality last ditch tackle denied Dadi and allowed Bignot to clear. When the half time whistle went we were happy to still be level and big improvements needed to be made to get the three points.

The fight and determination which went missing at Bristol was back though so the team at least looked desperate to win the points. We started the second half much better. Good work by Gallen saw him create a chance for himself but he dragged his shot wide.

Tranmere were being pushed back a lot more and the midfield were beginning to get on top but we were always looking dodgy to a long ball over the top with Tranmere’s dominance in the air and our offside trap never working in our favour.

The ref was still involved though booking Gnohere and Edghill to keep his ratio of yellow cards up. We almost grabbed the lead through a very committed effort from Gareth Ainsworth. A ball through saw the keeper come out and whilst most forwards would have given up Gareth launched himself in to the 50/50 with everything he had and got a foot on the ball but it flew wide of the post.

It was a great challenge by Ainsworth and he showed what we have been missing, his non stop work rate was a joy to see again down the wing and Kevin McLeod will be thankful of the upcoming suspensions as that’s the only way he’ll get back in the team.

Tranmere then had a good spell of pressure where they won several corners. It all started when Dadi broke the offside trap and was clean through but wasted the chance shooting well wide of the goal. It woke the home side up though and Lee Camp had to be in outstanding form to keep Tranmere out. His dominated his penalty area against some massive players and made sure we stayed level.

Rangers made a change to the midfield with the tiring Marc Bircham going off for Steve Palmer. Interestingly Gallen remained the captain despite Palmer being on the pitch.

Rangers then had the best chance of the game to win it. Furlong did well to hold off his man and from a similar position to his first goal at Hartlepool he fired in a shot. The keeper was equal to it but Gallen was hand for the rebound, which was cleared off the line. Surely we’d finish it off third time as Ainsworth powered a volley towards the roof of the net and it somehow hit a Tranmere defender in the face and went over for a corner. Amazing defending and goalkeeping to keep the scores level and luck was deserting us at a crucial point in the game.

The game looked to be heading for a draw when things went horribly wrong. A foul on Bean was overlooked by the ref and despite being well offside Dadi was waved on to run at goal. Perhaps the lino and ref wanted to see a goal. Dadi bore down on goal as Carlisle and Bignot chased back. Bignot went in to win the ball and caught Dadi and a penalty was given. The Rangers fans couldn’t believe it and despite having a defender in between Dadi/Bignot and the goal the ref decided Bignot was the last man and sent him off.

Dadi picked himself up to take the penalty and it was clear he was going to the left. Camp left a big gap on that side and sure enough Dadi placed it to the left and sent Camp the wrong way. 1-0 to Tranmere and the fans t our right celebrated with plenty of hand gestures to the QPR fans. The hand gestures were then returned when the ref signalled for a re take of the penalty and QPR fans just stopped laughing in time to see Dadi hit the post this time. Camp was sent the wrong way again and the ball fell to a player on the edge of the box who volleyed towards the roof of the net. Camp did brilliantly to get to his feet and acrobatically dive to punch the ball away for a corner.

Ranger’s fans had just finished celebrating when the ref went over to the bench and sent Ian Holloway off for calling him a cheat three times. Holloway claims he only said it twice and probably called him an arsehole the third time along with the rest of the stadium but he was off to the stands. As soon as Ollie went down the tunnel Matthew Rose replaced Martin Rowlands and went to right back so we could play a 4-4-1 now we were down to ten men.

Both sets of fans had now turned on the ref with chants of cheat coming from all round the ground and if he could the ref would have sent us all home with red cards, Unsure now who to give all the decisions to the ref finally took a back seat for a few minutes and let the players get on with it.

Both sides had chances to win it in the dying minute. Camp made another good save from Dadi before Ainsworth was brought down to give us a free kick on the edge of the box. We were all on our feet in the away end as Gallen touched it to Furlong but Furlong fired high and wide and the chance was gone.

Three minutes of injury time flew by, as we made sure we got the point and went home reasonably happy.

It wasn’t a great game but Rangers fought hard and deserved a point, which moves us one point clear of Bristol City. We’ll need to improve in the next few games if we want to go up. We needed someone to put a foot on the ball and calm it down in midfield as we created few chances going forward and at the back the instance on playing offside is seeing us get caught out every week. Without the pace of Forbes we are looking very vulnerable and it was only a top performance by lee Camp that made sure we kept a clean sheet.

Still it was much better than Saturdays shambles and we go into the Easter period in the automatic promotion places, lets just make sure we are still in them next Tuesday night.

Man of the Match: Lee Camp

Players Ratings

31. Lee Camp: Once again superb and made a great save after the penalty hit the post. He commanded his area so well claiming crosses against a very big Tranmere side. 8/10

12. Marcus Bignot: A better performance from Bignot and he was unlucky to be sent off. 7/10

23. Richard Edghill: A big improvement at left back. He defended well but his passing was disappointing. 7/10

5. Clarke Carlisle: Carlisle is having a laugh if he thinks his current form will get him a first division or premiership club this summer. His constant appeals for offside are costing us at the moment. 6/10

20. Arthur Gnohere: A much better performance and defended better than he has done for a few weeks. 7/10

14. Martin Rowlands: Got a knock early on and struggled but he worked hard and was at the heart of our best moments. 7/10

17. Marcus Bean: Worked hard doing what he does best. He won tackles, got stuck in and closed people down. 7/10

8. Marc Bircham: A hard working performance with loads of energy and he always tried to keep the temp high which helped the team improve on Saturdays performance. 7/10

11. Gareth Ainsworth: Great to see him back. He worked hard and created a few half chances. Very unlucky not to score. 7/10

10. Kevin Gallen: Did his job well, held the ball up and worked hard. Perhaps should have scored in the first half but another good display. 7/10

29. Paul Furlong: Another solid performance from Furlong but he didn't really get many chances to add to his goal tally. 7/10

Subs

4. Steve Palmer: Did ok when he came on, sat back to make sure we held on and we looked a bit more solid when he came on 7/10

7. Matthew Rose: Did well at right back and held possession at the end to waste a bit of time. 7/10