John Gregory's former club Derby County were the visitors to Loftus Road last night as Rangers looked to build on the recent impressive form.

Surprisingly Rangers were unchanged as new loan signing Michael Mancienne started on the bench. Scott Donnelly was also among the subs for the first time under John Gregory.

Rangers started the game brightly and full of confidence as we won an early free kick. Rowlands effort was deflected wide for a corner and from that the same man produced a cross for Stewart to meet and it was cleared off the line.

Our recent habit of conceding early continued though as Derby 's first attack ended with a goal. Bisgaard got the ball in midfield and ran towards the Rangers defence who backed off so deep they made it easy for the former international midfielder and he had time and space to pick his spot and curl a brilliant shot into the top corner. Jones had no chance and was quickly berating his defence. It was a quality goal but the poor defending was a theme that would continue all night.

Rangers were right back at Derby though and threw everything forward. Cook again was bright on the left and he left his full back in a daze as he breezed past him and whipped in a lovely cross for Blackstock to head towards the top corner but Grant made an excellent save to push it away for a corner. The crowd were right behind the team and Derby looked rattled. We were soon level with another Jimmy Smith special.

Rowlands put the ball into the box and it was half cleared to the edge of the box, Jimmy Smith was waiting and met it on the volley and smashed it into the top corner. A brilliant goal and Smith is fast earning a reputation as an excellent attacking midfield player.

Rangers were now buzzing and launching attack after attack on the Derby goal. Lee Cook was in sparkling form on the left cutting inside and out and tearing his full back apart. His crosses were excellent but Jones and Blackstock were both a little slow to anticipate the crosses and we failed to test the keeper from some excellent positions.

The game looked set to be a high scoring thriller as Derby then came back at us and carved us apart with worrying ease. Derby played with three strikers and Rangers seemed unable to cope with this tactic. Bisgaard was pulling the strings in midfield and played 2 lovely defence splitting passes through which luckily for us Howard failed to read an they rolled harmlessly to the keeper.

The Rangers back four were looking a mess and getting very little protection from midfield. It was down to Paul Jones to keep us in the game with a series of excellent saves. First up he produced a good save after Rehmann left Lupoli unmarked and the on loan striker was denied by a Jones save.

A free kick 30 yards out provided the next test and Seth Johnson smashed in a brilliant effort to the top corner and Jones did well to get across and get a good hand on the ball to push it wide of the post.

We looked like we needed half time to come quickly especially the way we were defending. Rehmann and Stewart were just hopeless and unable to stop any attack. Rehmann seemed to want far too much time on the ball and on one occasion he did a nice drag back to leave Howard on the floor but then put Stewart in trouble with an awful pass and we struggled to get out of our own half. It all looks pretty but at times you need the Danny Shittu school of hoofing it up field and clearing your lines before you try and be clever.

Rangers were eventually caught out and went behind for the second time. Mo Camara got away from Lomas and the veteran midfielder was caught out leaving Camara able to get the cross in. Lupoli met it but was denied by Jones but the ball ran to Howard who was unmarked from six yards out and made no mistake. He celebrated in front of the Loft and the inquest at the back began with Lomas holding his hands up to take the blame.

Rangers were shell shocked and Gregory made a tactical switch to stop the flow of attacks coming through the middle. He moved Rowlands inside with Bircham going on the right but tucked in so we had three central midfielders.

The move did manage to stop the Derby attacks but going forward Rowlands was getting in the way and we ended up losing Jimmy Smith as an attacking force as he was playing so deep.

At half time though we were still in the game and I fancied us to come back strong after the break, unfortunately that wasn't to be and Rangers went out with a bit of a whimper in the second half.

Derby came close to killing the game off within a minute of the second half. Once again it was diabolical defending from Rangers as Rehmann took his time on the ball and was closed down quickly so hoofed a clearance against Bolder and the ball sailed past Jones and just over the bar.

Rangers kept going but a lack of width was our undoing as we were unable to get in behind Derby and create enough chances.

Any chances we did create came from Cook who was fighting a losing battle on the left. He got past two defenders to cross for Blackstock but his knock down was just a little too far away from Jones to finish it off.

Martin Rowlands was busy in central midfield but was failing to get the space. He did fire a volley over the bar but apart from that he was struggling to have the impact on the game that he can do when he plays on the right.

Frustration was getting the better of Rangers as we began to get sloppy with our passes and Derby looked quite happy to sit back and play on the counter attack.

The referee had a mad few minutes, which ended with him booking Lee Cook. First off he gave a throw in to Derby after Cooks pass had hit Oakley in the face and bounced out. Cook looked angry and from the throw in he slid in with a perfectly times sliding tackle to take the ball, in one movement he sprung to his feet with the ball under control and fired a long range shot over the bar and was booked for kicking the ball away. A ridiculous decision from the referee, bookings for kicking the ball away are supposed to be brought in to stop time wasting but we were clearly not time wasting and the decision was made more frustrating when the ref failed to punish the same offence by Derby players later in the game.

Paul Jones was keeping Rangers in the game as Derby had a five-minute spell, which should have seen them kill the game off. Again Seth Johnson went close with a free kick. This time he hit his long range effort low and it was on target but Jones got down well and managed to get a hand on it to keep it out.

It goes without saying that Rehmann was soon at fault again losing his man and giving Steve Howard a golden chance but Jones again saved his back four with a good save.

Jon Stead came on for the visitors and his pathetic goal record in recent years made him a certainty to cause us problems. He was very unlucky not get off the mark as he cut inside Lomas and smashed in a shot which beat Jones but came off the post and bounced away to safety.

Steve Howard was next to rattle the woodwork as Rehmann and Stewarts allergy to marking gave the big forward space to meet a Camara cross which beat Jones and hot the bar.

The crowd were getting restless and Adam Bolder should have made things worse when he ran in at the far post with no one tracking him and had a simple chance to tuck it away but managed to cock it up and keep the score at 2-1.

John Gregory made a change and the tiring Ray Jones was replaced by Kevin Gallen who came on with some instructions for Bircham to try and utilise the space on the right. It was Bircham who was next to go close as Derby were looking comfortable. He got the ball outside the box and went for his one a season special but the keeper did well to parry the shot away.

At the other end Stead almost made the game safe with a turn that left Stewart for dead and Paul Jones yet again denied the striker to keep us in the game.

Scott Donnelly was brought in for Lomas as we went 3-5-2 and he made a quick impact getting behind Derby on the right but his cross was blocked away for a corner. Rangers were not giving up but we didn't really look like scoring until the board went up for injury time and we missed a sitter to nick a point.

In all honestly Rangers should have kicked the ball out as Leacock went down with a head injury, the ref played on and Cook got down the wing to cross for Rowlands who had space but put it wide for six yards out. The confused ref then allowed Leacock to get treatment and the big defender looked in some pain as he was taken off. The ref gave a corner despite no Derby player getting near Rowlands shot and from the set piece Blackstock headed our last chance wide.

In the end it was a deserved win for Derby and John Gregory tasted defeat for the first time as QPR manager. It was disappointing performance from Rangers and I thought for the first time last night that Gregory made a cock up which cost us a point.

I could understand why he moved Rowlands into the middle at first as Derby were playing through us far too easily but as the game wore on we had no width on the right and Rowlands was just getting in Cook and Bircham's way. Smith ended up playing deeper and deeper and our goal threat just went.

At the back we look to have big problems but I think they are problems that can be sorted out.

Rehmann and Stewart are awful as a combination, as bad a central defensive partnership as we've had since the days of Ready and Morrow. Individually though they are not that bad and they just need to be played with the right partner. Stewart looked a far better player alongside Kanyuka whilst Rehmann has looked better at full back. For this weekends game I'd like to see Rehmann move to right back where he'll have a bit more time on the ball to pass out from the back and have Mancienne come in to partner Stewart. We still need that experienced head at the back but it looks like we'll have to wait until January for that player to come in.

Still hopefully that's a wake up call for us and despite the defeat we still look to have the makings of a decent side and hopefully we can bounce back at Hillsborough this weekend.

Man of the Match: Paul Jones

Players Ratings: Jones 8, Lomas 5 (Donnelly 5), Bignot 6, Rehmann 4, Stewart 5, Rowlands 7, Bircham 6, Smith 6, Cook 7, Blackstock 6, Jones 6 (Gallen 6)