After last weeks late collapse against Hull City this was a game that Rangers really needed to get something out of. It wasn't going to be easy though against a Southampton side just a few points behind the league leaders and pushing hard for promotion.

Gregory was forced into changes for this game. Marcus Bignot missed out through injury meaning a full debut for Sampsa Timoska at left back whilst Zesh Rehmann came in at right back with Kanyuka dropping to the bench. Lee Cook was missing through suspension so Jimmy Smith switched to the left wing with Shabazz Baidoo making his first start under John Gregory on the right wing.

The weather conditions were not exactly helping the game flow early on with a strong wind meaning both sides played pretty direct with the ball spending more time in the air than on the floor. New boy Timoska was making an impressive start to the game, he was strong in the tackle and linked well with Smith on the left.

It was Southampton who were having the better of the game though. The impressive Gareth Bale was whipping in some dangerous free kicks and corners and Royce seemed a little uneasy due to the wind and choose to punch rather than catch the ball. Unfortunately his punches were not great and one of the m fell to Rasiak with an open goal to aim at but he put his chance wide.

Wright and Licka were controlling the midfield and both of them forced Royce into low saves from long range. Bircham was really struggling and hurt himself as he went in with a high tackle on Licka. Bircham limped off and Stefan Bailey replaced him. Rangers suddenly looked a little more combative. Bailey was wasting no time and putting himself about with some very strong but fair tackles. It was good to see Bailey back and he along with Lomas got Rangers into the game with an impressive performance.

Bailey even created a great chance for Rangers to go ahead as he won the ball and ran inside before playing a reverse pass in between the two defenders to send Blackstock clean through and Rangers leading scorer flicked it with his right foot over the diving keeper and wide of the post. He really should have scored and was almost made to pay for the miss when Kenwyne Jones went up the other end and forced Royce into a good save right on half time.

At the break Rangers would have been pretty pleased with how things were going, it has been a poor game but Rangers were competing and were giving it everything they had.

The second half saw Southampton have more of the possession but they created very little and had to rely on set pieces to work the Rangers defence. Bale was putting some good balls into the box but Stewart and Mancienne were playing well and clearing them. Shabazz Baidoo was struggling on the right wing especially with his defensive duties, as he appeared to have no idea how to tackle. No shock really as he's a centre forward and has probably never had to defend much in his career so far.

The game was very stop start with the referee taking centre stage stopping the game for the slightest of touches and he didn't seem to like Stefan Bailey as he blew every time Bailey went near an opposition player.

Rangers had a chance to take the lead with a corner on the left. Smith whipped the ball in and Blackstock headed the ball past the keeper but it was cleared off the line. The fans were in good voice right behind the team and the players were working so hard to get the win or the point we badly needed.

Southampton had that extra piece of quality though and it showed when they were able to bring on Bradley Wright-Phillips and Rangers change saw Marc Nygaard come on for the disappointing Ray Jones.

It was Wright-Phillips who would go on to win the game for his side in a controversial final ten minutes. Southampton won a corner on the right and Bale's cross was excellent - right under the cross bar. Royce went up and flapped at it again knocking the ball down to Rasiak who had the simple task of touching the ball home. It did appear that Wright-Phillips made contact with Royce, which many refs would have seen as a foul, but in all honesty Royce never had hold of the ball and the goal seemed fair enough to me.

What followed though was a scandalous decision that would rob Rangers of a hard earned point. A long throw on the left from Lomas saw calamity Kelvin Davis come out for the ball and completely cock it up as he dropped it to Blackstock who hit a great shot on the turn to level the scored. Pig Bag blared out, the crowd went mad and the ref turned and pointed to the centre circle. However, he had given a foul on the keeper and disallowed the goal. A terrible decision from the referee, the contact by Stewart (if there was any) was identical to the goal he had given for Southampton just a minute before. The players had been badly let down by this incompetent buffoon and that decision really knocked the stuffing out of us as a few heads stated to go down.

Southampton killed the game off during injury time. Rangers had a free kick on the left but it was cleared with a ball over Timoska and Mancienne for Wright-Phillips to run onto and the youngster produced the one moment of quality in the game to cut onto his left foot and bury his shot past Royce.

The final whistle was blown in an almost empty stadium as the home fans left on mass and it's now nine defeats in the last eleven games, which is a very poor record.

It was a hard fought game, dire to watch from a neutral point of view but I thought the team gave everything they had and were a little unlucky not to get a point from the game. We would have got the point if the referee had given a perfectly legal goal but that's the way it seems to go when you are struggling.

The performance was of course by no means perfect and without Cook we had absolutely no creativity in the final third but it's hard to criticise players when they work as hard as that. Possibly the only player who will come in for some stick will be Smith, Baidoo and Royce. Smith was again very quiet but he's not a left winger and it's unfair to be too hard on a 19 year old playing out of position.

Baidoo struggled on the right wing but it's easy to forget that's not his position and after spending most of his life being trained how to score goals it's obviously going to be a bit alien to him when he has Gareth Bale running at him. Due to the club getting rid of attacking players like Donnelly, Gallen and Oliseh who can play wide we are very weak in these areas when the first choice players are injured.

On the positive side I thought Bailey did well when he came on and Lomas was excellent.

I liked the look of the Robbie Savage look-alike Timoska at left back, he made one brilliant covering tackle at 0-0. He looked very encouraging. Mancienne looked a different class at the back, thank god Mourinhio hasn't taken him back.

A draw would have been a fair result and if we keep battling like that I think we'll eventually put away from trouble. Gregory has a lot of work to do though before the transfer window shuts. I think we badly need a right winger as we just can't rely on the fitness of Ainsworth and Rowlands and I'd look to get someone like Graham Kavannagh in on loan if we could as the central midfield is still pretty weak. Also think we need another forward, seeing the hopeless Nygaard come on for Jones shows how weak we are in that position and makes that decision to get rid of Gallen seem even more ridiculous.

The Barnsley away game next week looks rather important now, I just hope we go to that one making noises about winning the game rather than not losing as we did at Hull.

Man of the Match: Michael Mancienne

Players Ratings: Royce 6, Rehmann 7, Timoska 7, Mancienne 8, Stewart 7, Smith 6, Lomas 7, Bircham 7 (Bailey 7), Baidoo 6, Blackstock 7, Jones 5 (Nygaard 5)