Team Line Up
		1. Lee Camp
25. Bob Malcolm		28. Zesh Rehmann	19. Simon Walton		3. Chris Barker
11. Gareth Ainsworth		32. Mikele Leigterwood	7. Adam Bolder (c)		14. Martin Rowlands
		10. Akos Buzsacky
		26. Rowan Vine
Subs
Marc Nygaard on for Martin Rowlands
Dexter Blackstock on for Akos Buzsacky
Subs Not Used
Jake Cole
Pat Kanyuka
Stefan Moore

Boxing Day used to be a good day to go and watch QPR in action but in recent years we've found ourselves going to some strange away games with long distances and no public transport. This year it was Plymouth on Boxing Day a fixture that very few could get to so instead of making the long trip down the M4 I watched the Liverpool v Derby game in a local pub before watching the final depressing score come in on Sky Sports.

As it turned out Rangers were unable to build on Saturdays win against Colchester and dropped back into the bottom three. The biggest disappointment was that Leigterwood was sent off after the game and will now miss the next four games which includes the FA Cup trip to Chelsea and a game against his former club Sheffield United.

Here is a summary of the game from A Kick Up the R's editor Dave Thomas who did make the long trip to Plymouth

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Dave Thomas

Not that I am unforgiving of a defeat that was as avoidable as it was predictable. It was nothing to do with Christmas, the journey down there, £24 to get in, the annoying chavs to our right, the cold, the poor catering, or anything else - but rarely can so many Rangers fans have left the ground so annoyed as here. It's like watching a car crash - as we sit and squirm as Rangers make hard work of hanging on to a lead. The lack of movement in the team is dreadful - at times. Watch how when we have a throw-in, the thrower has so few options. And then we can produce a lovely, flowing move that results in our goal.

But at present, those little moments of quality are rare - and for the most part we are lacking in so many basic aspects, it's hard to know where to start. Individually, players are giving it their all - collectively, it's not knitting together. Plymouth battered us for 90 minutes non-stop - at least that's how it seemed. For the last 15 minutes of the first-half, we barely had the ball in their area and we came out in the second-half with so little attacking intent, we were wasting time from two minutes in. Even when the penalty drew Plymouth level, we showed so little attacking intent, it was embarrassing. And then, as if someone, somewhere has flicked a big switch, we decide to go for it and suddenly put some pressure on them.

It's this playing in snatches that frustrates. Going from second gear to fifth is fine - as long as you stay there and it's not when you've just spent 45 minutes at a crawl. I don't suggest this is some kind of game plan - it just happens. But it happens every game. The only difference is in the length of time we are playing with purpose and cohesion. And when you are up against a team who are going to keep up a pace and be direct for 90 minutes, then it's inevitable they will score against this defence of ours. That it took them 93 and a half minutes from open play to do so was down to a mix of good fortune and Lee Camp. Not for the first time of late, we got lucky with at least three shots going across the face of the goal and past the outside of the post. And then Barker hooked the ball over the bar from close range, which his expression and body language suggested was all down to an instinctive reaction - which is, of course, what you want in your defenders.

I cite that deliberately because it brings me on to Rehman. Defending doesn't come easy or naturally to him. Plymouth is one of those grounds that it's difficult to see what is going on at the other end when you are low down (as I was and Tracy was yesterday) - which is why we both have to take other people's word that it was Ainsworth who scored and Rowland was responsible for the penalty, But right in front of us, during the first-half, Rehman showed why he is a jobbing centre-half, playing out of his depth at this level. He's been coached to get goalside of his man - which is all right and proper. But watching him do this is like watching someone's thought processes playing out. Meanwhile, the guy he is marking has that half a second advantage while Zesh gets into the correct position. It's painful to watch at this level. I don't know what it is that allows some (well, most) defenders to be in the right place in the right time - spatial awareness, timing, instinct, I guess. But watching Rehman adjust his position because he's on the wrong side of a defender is to make you want to tear your hair out, no matter how hard he is trying.

But that's not all. Rehman can't or maybe won't (certainly doesn't) jump for headers when he's marking someone close. So you get the spectacle of a cross coming over, Hayles jumping and connecting with the ball, while Rehman (just behind him and with a height advantage) makes no attempt to jump with him. And when the ball needs a good head on to get it upfield and out of danger, watch how many times Rehman puts a weak header in, often going straight to a grateful opposition forward and putting us under pressure again. Stewart isn't that much better when it comes to heading.

Which in turn brings me on to Walton. I am assuming he is not a natural central defender - but what a good job he did yesterday. It was quite a shock to see a QPR defender jumping with an opponent and winning just about every header. And though he was no nonsense about some of his long boots upfield when needed, they were mostly hit with accuracy and back-spin, meaning that they weren't just booted long and aimlessly for the sake of it. And then in the second-half, there was one moment when an errant Plymouth ball allowed Walton a free header away - and it must have travelled 50-60 yards. A proper central defender's clearance. Walton wasn't outstanding in any sense - but he did the job very well indeed and really summed up for me why our defence is such a concern. If he stays there, I suspect he will tighten it up single-handedly - in the way Timoska and/or Cullip might have done. Both far better at their job than Rehman. Apart from one stupid and failed attempt to dribble the ball out of the area, Barker did very little wrong. Malcolm, for all his lack of pace, does at least have that one attribute missing from the rest of the defence - composure. With Stewart back on Saturday, alongside Walton, I expect the defence to be improved.

Incidentally, if anyone has a spare Watford ticket, or knows of one - can I have it, pretty please! Looks like I am going to have to get in the home end or not get in at all - which is a bit of a sod. Especially as I haven't missed a game all season.

Anyway, back to Plymouth.... I agree with Tracy that Leigertwood was poor by his own standards (though from not being able to play a five-yard pass in the first-half, he finished the game strongly in our burst of attacking play in the final 15 minutes). Bolder was great when he came into a struggling side and gave it a timely boost. But he's now the weak link in the middle. Rowlands did okay. I thought Buzsaky was the pick of our midfield, showing his usual sublime touch and vision. Here is a player for whom the game does come naturally.

But there was, to my mind, one QPR performance yesterday that stood out above all. Not Camp - though one close-range, instinctive save was brilliant. Nor Ainsworth, who gives away too many needless free-kicks, ran into too much trouble to be even halfway effective here, can't last 90 minutes these days, and whose crossing is average at best. Nygaard did well enough when he came on and Blackstock livened up things too.

But no question for me who was the Man of the Match, and who I would pay Birmingham what they are asking for him - Rowan Vine. Having him play out wide is, to my mind, playing to his strengths. He not only has an ability to run at defenders with the ball but he goes past them with consumate ease at times. He also has incredible strength. Two things are under-rated about Vine. One is the amount of work he gets through. The second is the quality of his crosses. Compare and contrast the balls Vine plays into the box with those that Ainsworth does - and just see the difference. The trouble is, of course, that there's either no-one to get on the end of them or Blackstock is that half-a-yard too slow at present. Vine produced all this yesterday and he gave the Plymouth defence more to do than the rest of our team combined.

Sometimes the collective performance is not as good as the sum of the individual parts - and sometimes it's the other way around. For me, yesterday was the former. Despite the annoyance at gifting the game to Plymouth, I don't think anyone seriously believes we will go down this season - and I think that would still be the case if there wasn't an influx of new faces to come in January. (I am talking about the view of those who watch the team home and away - no disrespect to those who don't.)

Despite the criticisms aimed at individual players - we are an under-performing team. Which means we should be - and are - capable of more than sitting in the bottom three. I am not suggesting the manager should go, or needs to go, or will go - but I am still waiting to see what his own stamp is on the side.