Rangers finished the season with a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City yesterday which ensured a top half finish. I was a wedding over the weekend so couldn’t make the game so here is a match report by Simon Skinner from www.qprnet.com

Olly had already said that he would take this opportunity to give people a final chance to get into his plans for next season. Rossi remained in goal behind Bignot, Shittu, Santos and Padula. Rowlands, Bircham, Gallen and Cook made up the midfield four with Thorpe and Gallen in attack. There was a first place on the bench for young left back Matthew Hislop.

From our diabolical vantage point inside the dilapidated Ninian Park we were treated to the sight of Cardiff making nearly all of the early running. The searing pace of Jerome and McAnuff was in evidence from the off. Bignot had his work cut out from the get go as the former Wimbledon and West Ham winger looked to test him at every opportunity. In the middle Jerome was giving Shittu a torrid time also, it is rare that he gets tested for pace like this.

Cardiff were forcing a host of corners and from one of these the flame haired James Collins nodded well over the bar. Rangers managed to force a corner at the other end when referee Marriner decided Neil Alexander had carried the ball out after good interplay between Gallen and Rowlands. The ball wasn’t even close to going out; we should have made the most of this as we were awarded precious little else by this ref all afternoon.

It was Jobi McAnuff that gave Cardiff the lead with twenty six minutes played. Cameron Jerome set off like a rocket down the right side and left Padula and Shittu for dead. His ball across the box went through the space Shittu had vacated and McAnuff was moving in from his left wing berth to fire into the bottom corner. In truth it was no more than they deserved as they had been the brighter side for long periods.

Rangers were simply not able to create anything going forward and this was in the most part due to some poor forward play from Thorpe and Cureton. Thorpe kept finding himself offside, mind you; at least he was making runs which was a damn sight more than Cureton was doing. Olly eventually moved Curo to the right, pushed Rowlands inside and shifted Gallen up front in an attempt to give us some presence.

Cardiff went close again when Boland mugged Santos by flicking the ball over his head before volleying wide. The skill even drew applause from the R’s fans as we were being starved of anything of our own to applaud. Everything seemed to be breaking down on the edge of the box no matter how intricate the build up. Rowlands managed to eek out a rare sight of goal but could only fire straight at Alexander.

Many hoped that Olly would change things up at the break; I would certainly have welcomed the introduction of Miller in place of the insipid Cureton. Olly stuck with the same personnel though and in truth, things did pick up, a bit.

Gallen found space on the edge of the area and seemed to have done Alexander but he could only drag the ball wide with the goal at his mercy. Soon after Gallen released Cook on the left side and he bore down on goal. He slammed in a low shot which Alexander did well to turn against the upright.

The game was a nothing affair by now, Langley’s every touch was being booed by the majority of the travelling R’s support. I don’t understand it myself, I would welcome him back tomorrow but I don’t think he will be too keen on it now. He was sold to help improve the team, which we did. Yes he went to Cardiff but who cares! People are far too hung up on the whole Cardiff thing, yes we took an extra season to go up, but who is in the better shape now?

With the game entering injury time Rangers almost snatched what would have been a slightly fortunate equaliser. Rowlands was felled on the edge of the box and Padula stepped up to strike the ball. His effort whipped over the wall and just evaded Alexander’s hand to cannon back off the bar. It would have been fitting for Gino to get one in what could conceivably be his last game for the Rangers.

At the final whistle nobody was overly bothered about the result. The fact that we had managed to finish in 11th place in our first season back at this level is a fabulous achievement. The players came over to applaud the fans, but oddly the management didn’t. Maybe they were letting the players have their moment but I though it was a pretty poor show.

This game was a chance for some to prove themselves worthy of a place in next season’s squad. I hope Gino has done enough now as he has played really well in the last half a dozen games. I think Thorpe and Cureton signed their own release forms today and I would assume that Day will be going as he wasn’t even given a chance to show what he could do.

There have been some low points this season, the defeats at Watford and Leeds, the Ramon Diaz debacle, but the good far outweighs the bad. Wins against a Wigan side promoted this afternoon and third placed Ipswich; a stunning season from Furlong and the development of Danny Shittu into a defender coveted by Premier League clubs. Later in the season we also saw the breakthrough of the next generation of Rangers stars.

You should always look to improve and if we can improve by four or five places next season then that is good progress. Many will say that the season ticket hike means we should be looking even higher than that but some sense of realism has to be applied. The transfer windows are going to hit us hard but if we can amass a decent squad from the off then next year might be a cracker.