Match Report from www.qprnet.com BORO BLITZ WRETCHED RANGERS Following the disappointing draw with Coventry City last Saturday there was a solitary change to the side. Yet another injury to Matt Connolly saw Gorkss back in the side. Cerny lined up in goal behind Leigertwood, Hall, Gorkss and Borrowdale. Buzsaky, Watson, Faurlin and Taarabt were in midfield with Routledge supporting Simpson. The opening exchanges didn’t hint at what was to follow as Rangers made a lively start, zipping the ball around midfield. The first two sights of goal both fell to Taarabt who was in greedy bastard mode rather than the team player mode we have seen more of in recent weeks. Firstly he linked well with Routledge and lashed over, Simpson and Routledge then combined to set Taarabt in again and once more he blazed his shot well off target. Taarabt tried plenty but achieved little on the afternoon, that was in stark contrast to some others though who tried bugger all and achieved the same results. Leroy Lita, already getting the bird from the 13,000 (we expect this game to sell out indeed) crowd and he sent a shot straight at Cerny. At the other end Leigertwood had gone up for a corner and was presented with a free header from six yards that he put well off target. Borrowdale advanced forward for the next effort and he worked Jones with a twenty five yard strike. The best move of the game so far soon followed as slick passing sent Simpson in on goal but he dragged a shot wide. Boro hadn’t really got going to this point but that all changed when former Spurs man Mark Yeates lashed a wicked dipping strike past Cerny that clattered into the face of the bar. It was a fabulous effort on his weaker side. He was becoming a growing influence on the game and he, along with fellow midfield men O’Neil and Arca were starting to take control. With the impressive Isiah Osbourne breaking up the play Rangers were starting to see less and less of the ball. Faurlin was good when he got on it but with little or no help from Watson or Buzsaky and double marking on Routledge and Taarabt his options were sparse. Lita enraged the home crowd when he threw himself to the floor to try and win a penalty from Hall. As I have said before, I don’t know why people dive when Hall is around as if you just wait he will come and grab hold of you. His style of defending is more Randy Savage than Robbie Savage, he grabs hold of opponents too readily and the better attackers make a mug of him. He sent Yeates tumbling soon after to concede the free kick that would lead to the opener. O’Neil stepped up to deliver from forty yards and the ball seemed to take a nick on the edge of the box before Dave Kitson snaked out a foot under minimal attention from Hall to steer the ball past Cerny via the keepers left hand. The defending was criminal, that made it three consecutive set piece goals conceded, all of them avoidable and all of them a testament to the lack of focus we seem to play with at the moment. Despite only being a goal down you could sense that there was only one winner. Boro visibly grew in confidence whilst Rangers looked shell shocked and unsure of what they should do, what they did was absolutely nothing. Gary O’Neil, head and shoulders the best player on the pitch, drew a good save from Cerny when he was afforded all the time in the world to take aim and try and bend one in the top corner. It was a good moment on a poor afternoon for the increasingly erratic Cerny. The half time break didn’t seem to make any difference as Rangers set about the second half as they had finished the first. The hopeless Leigertwood fell over under no contact on halfway and Boro broke to win a corner. The ball was fired in and as a gaggle of players challenge for it Watson seemed to handle. The ball broke to Wheater who fired in as referee Gibbs blew for the pen. Lita stepped up and belted it high past Cerny before running half the length of the field close to the fans to earn himself a yellow card. Strachan reckons there isn’t anything about goading in the rule book? Shut up you twonk! Magilton responded with a double change, Simpson and the dreadful Buzsaky were hauled off and Vine and Agyemang sent on. I was in full whinge about the point of bringing Agyemang on for anyone when Vine was slipped in down the left, pulled the ball back and Agyemang stroked it home with his first touch. In my face indeed! That goal should have been the kick up the backside that Rangers needed but sadly, the sheer ineptitude of the Rangers defending meant that Boro had their two goal lead back within seven minutes. Leigertwood was the instigator with yet another hopeless attempt at a pass to a team mate. This time he presented the ball to Yeates who bypassed Leigertwood with the pass to send Lita in. Lita faced up to Hall and there was only going to be one outcome as the cumbersome defender wasn’t close enough to rugby tackle him and could only get a toe end on Lita’s shot to take it into the corner. More awful play from Rangers, the right side of the back four, going by the same credo that Magilton applied to Gorkss after Doncaster, will not be playing at Watford on Monday night. Oh who am I kidding? They will both be there, the inspirational Leigertwood proudly sporting the armband to lead his men into battle once more… Rangers were all over the shop now. There was no attacking threat and every time Boro crossed the half way line there was a chance of some incompetent boobery presenting them with a goal. Routledge did manage to carve out a chance after he managed to steer a deep Borrowdale cross back across the goal only for nobody to have had the brains to follow it in. it just about summed things up. At the other end Lita was played in down the right, left Gorkss for dead and thrashed a ferocious effort against Cerny’s left hand post. The ball bounced clear to O’Neil who, under no pressure whatsoever, calmly steered it into the net for number four. Cue mass exodus from the ground, including your intrepid reporter. Number five arrived whilst I was on the Central Line and having seen it on TV, I can confirm that Yeates finished it nicely under no pressure. This was wretched defending. Of the back four and keeper only Borrowdale can say that he put a performance in. Gorkss was poor but not half as bad as the clowns to his right, Hall and Leigertwood were an embarrassment. In midfield only Faurlin performed and he was so starved of options after the twenty minute mark that he had to look for evermore difficult passes. Watson was poor, Buzsaky was worse and Routledge and Taarabt simply couldn’t shake off the attentions of the two men posted to then whenever they got the ball. Up top Simpson was simply eaten alive by Mr Punch doppelganger David Wheater. The team move onto a live Sky game at Watford and given our usual standard of performance at Vicarage Road I am fully prepared to be nipping off with plenty of time left yet again. |
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