Once again Waddock surprised many with his team selection going for a working rather than creative midfield as Bircham and Lomas started again. Marc Nygaard returned to replace the injured Paul Furlong whilst Ian Evatt also returned in place of Matthew Rose.
In truth the game never really got going and for a side struggling against the drop it was a surprise to see the real lack of urgency from Brighton who seemed happy with a point from the first minute.
They had a few
long distance efforts early on but Paul Jones saved them all comfortably
whilst Dan Shittu was again impressing as he controlled the back
four.
Up front Gallen was linking play nicely but his partnership with
Nygaard never really clicked and most of our moves broke down
quickly. Lee Cook was impressing again on the left as he looked
to exploit the space created by Milanese and Gallen and it was
Cook who created the opening goal.
Gallen collected
the ball on the left and played it back to Cook who curled a lovely
cross to the far post and Ainsworth arrived unmarked to head past
the keeper and win me a tenner for my first goal scorer bet.
That should have been the cue to go on and win comfortably and
Rangers were pretty much in control for the rest of the half without
extending that lead. I honestly couldn't see a woeful Brighton
side scoring.
We had our share of chances but none really clear-cut as Ainsworth's. Gallen and Shittu all had half chances to kill the game off.
Gallen was being
caught off side several times but the one time he beat the linesmen
flag he appeared to stop and look for a flag when if he'd kept
going he would have been clean through.
Still at half time there was plenty to be pleased with and it
seemed only a matter of time before we killed the game off, it
was going to take a right defensive cock up or a bad refereeing
decision to mess this up, luckily for Brighton they got both if
those in a frustrating second half.
Just two minutes into the half Kevin Gallen was shown the first
red card of his career. It came in an off the ball incident which
I personally didn't see but the official reason seemed to be that
Gallen threw a punch at a Brighton defender.
This seemed
totally out of character for Gallen and judging by his reaction
to the defender, who didn't even require treatment and sprinted
off within seconds of the red card coming out, I'd say that Gallen
was hard done by. It's hard to get too judgemental over their
bloke throwing himself to the floor as Bircham did the same thing
ten minutes later trying to get a Brighton player sent off.
The referee then stunned everyone by awarding a throw in so whatever
crime Gallen had committed it was worthy of a red card but not
a free kick. I'm pretty sure this is the same idiot who sent off
Jude the Cat last year so we shouldn't be surprised.
This of course changed the shape of the game with Nygaard having
to play as a long striker and the big man made Santos up front
look like a decent alternative.
Still Rangers
looked the better side and were on top as Ainsworth worked his
socks off on the wing and almost created a second goal for Lee
Cook.
Gary Waddock then made a change, which was a bold one, but I thought
a little naive on his part. Lee Cook and Marc Nygaard were replaced
by Baidoo and Youssouf. This left us playing a 4-3-2, which was
good to see us still go for it but left us with no one on the
left and the balance of the midfield was totally gone.
We stopped creating chances and restored to long punts up the
field for Baidoo to chase. Personally I'd have taken Bignot off
and gone 3-4-2 but that's easy to say sitting in the stand. Also
as we began to lose possession too easily in midfield it seemed
bizarre that Langley wasn't introduced into the game.
Instead we resorted to time wasting against a side who never once
looked like scoring but we were handing the initiative to them
and they almost got level when Paul Jones flapped at a cross and
Shittu had to slice the ball away from danger.
Rangers still looked likely winners until a defensive cock up
gifted Brighton a point. Lomas appeared to get an elbow on the
half way but the game continued and a hopeful ball to the far
post evaded any Brighton striker, Bignot though for some reason
decided to head back to Jones and ended up just heading into the
bottom corner leaving Jones with no chance.
Quite why he
didn't just boot the ball out of play is beyond me and I doubt
Bignot himself will know what he was trying to do. It was just
one of those things and we'd managed to throw away another three
points at home.
Rangers continued to push forward for a winner after this but
a complete lack of creativity in midfield and no one really making
any runs into the box meant we rarely threatened the Brighton
goal.
We did have one late glorious chance to win it after good work
by Ainsworth the ball into the ball was perfect for Baidoo but
the young striker totally missed the ball from five yards out
with the goal at his mercy. The youngster looked devastated with
himself but hopefully no one will blame him as with experience
I'm sure he'll start putting those chances away.
So at the end the referee and the number 24 were booed off whilst
the players were given a decent send off by the QPR fans for a
performance that would have seen them booed off under the previous
manager.
This really was a frustrating performance and one that Gary Waddock
won't want too much more of this season otherwise he might be
joining Ian Holloway in the garden this summer.
At the end of
the day the result doesn't really matter but it was once again
the performance that causes concern as we played very little football
throughout and was really no better than some of the tripe served
up at times under Ian Holloway, which the outgoing manager was
slaughtered and eventually sacked for.
Hopefully Waddock can learn from this and quickly get a creative
player like Langley back in the side soon because this new style
he wants us to play just isn't going to happen with a Bircham
and Lomas midfield partnership. It needs to be one or the other
not both especially at home against a side as poor as Brighton.
Man of the Match: Gareth Ainsworth
Players Ratings: Jones 7, Bignot 5, Milanese 7, Shittu 7, Evatt 7, Ainsworth 8, Bircham 6, Lomas 6, Cook 7 (Baidoo 6), Gallen 6, Nygaard 5 (Yosoouf 6)