Rangers celebrated the end of the Flavio Briatorie era with a hard fought win over Doncaster Rovers. Matthew Connolly continued in midfield whilst Antonio German made his first start up front for Rangers. German scored from close range and had an excellent game having one disallowed and playing a role in Jay Simpson getting the winning goal.

It was an enjoyable game, I thought German had a cracking game, he made plenty of mistakes and is very raw but kept working hard
and was unlucky not to score a couple more goals. Quite why we signed Bent and Priskin when we have German is beyond me.

Cook also had a good game and Buzsaky got better in the second half, a lovely ball by him for the second goal. We still look weak at the back and against a side not playing well we still almost threw it away at the end but the three points were very welcome. The streaker was funny as well mainly as it was so cold he didn't even take his pants off.

Hopefully this is a turning point but I still think we have a lot to do if we are going to stay up.

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Full Match Report from www.qprnet.com

DONNY SUNK BY GERMAN BITE
Saturday 20th February 2010
by Simon Skinner

It might not have been fluent, it might not have been exactly easy on the eye, but it was a win. The expression a win is a win doesn’t exactly ring true at Rangers with the team booed off last time they won, that last win came just shy of two months ago. Often when you are in a run like this it is a surprise package that drags you up, in this case it was a raw youth team striker who led the way.

After going down to Coventry by a solitary fluke in the last game Harford made only one change to the starting line up. Ikeme continued in goal behind Ramage, Stewart, Gorkss and Hill. Buzsaky, Connolly, Faurlin and Cook were in midfield with Simpson partnered up top by Antonio German. Priskin didn’t even make the bench and you would think that his days might be numbered already.

Buzsaky had Rangers first effort of the game when he moved forward from midfield before striking the ball sweetly but to high. Connolly then saw a shot deflected wide for a corner that came to nothing. At the other end Brian Stock saw a shot blocked behind before Doncaster tried an elaborate corner routine that ended with James Hayter volleying wildly into the Upper Loft.

Rangers had to endure a ten minute spell with ten men when Faurlin somehow managed to cut his own head open! There didn’t appear to be any contact with an opponent as he headed the ball but he ended up sporting a wound to the right of his head that needed stitching. Whilst down to ten German was left to plough a lone furrow up top and Simpson dropped to the right of midfield with Buzsaky central.

Doncaster enjoyed their best spell of the half whilst they had the extra man. Ramage was getting dragged all over the place at right back and seemed to be struggling to close his man down, at left back Hill was pretty much everywhere bar left back as per usual as he continued to show the sort of form that must leave Borrowdale tearing his hair out. Both Hayter and Coppinger failed to test Ikeme during this spell and they would be left to regret not making the most of the chances as Rangers hit the front shortly after the Argentine returned.

German fed the ball inside to Faurlin who in turn sent it wide to Cook whilst moving into position to take the return. As he received the ball he seemed to have taken too long but his timing was perfect as Buzsaky moved into the inside left channel and Faurlin picked him out. The Hungarian midfielder measured a perfect left footed cross into the six yard box where Simpson arrived with a diving header that Sullivan parried superbly. There was no luck for the veteran keeper though as German pounced on the loose ball to bundle it in for his first senior goal on his full Rangers debut.

To this point German had been battling gamely for possession whenever the ball was fed up to him, after the goal though you could see that the belief was suddenly coursing through him and he went on to give Ward and Hird a torrid afternoon. He showed great awareness of what and who was around him, if it needed flicking he flicked it, if it needed holding he held it, I would have liked to see him put his foot in a bit more as there were a few 50/50’s that he maybe shied away from but that is a minor issue at this stage.

German teed up Cook for a run and shot after holding the ball up well in midfield. The skipper had something of a rush of blood as he had two players better placed to his right waiting for the cross but he went for the low strike and dragged it past the post. Billy Sharp looked to have broken the R’s offside trap (if you can call it a trap) shortly afterwards but a late flag dragged him back as Ikeme and Hill closed in.

The half settled into a pattern of Ikeme aiming lazily lobbed high balls at German which he would challenge for and often win before Doncaster would try and play though midfield only to be halted by some tigerish play from Connolly and Faurlin. Connolly looks quite at home in midfield at the moment, whether that will pan out against the likes of West Brom and Boro remains to be seen but he is certainly a more palatable option than Leigertwood or Quashie.

In the closing moments of the half both sides passed up chances to score. The much travelled John Oster cut a ball back from the by-line for Stock to fire over the bar before Simpson saw a shot blocked away for a corner. From Cook’s left wing delivery Gorkss rose highest at the far post to power a header on target that Sullivan somehow managed to deflect away, it was a second excellent save and he earned his bit of luck on this one that was missing from the first.

After the break Faurlin continued his quest to open his Rangers account when he picked up the ball from German before sending a low shot skidding wide of the target. Rangers then won a corner and Cook picked out German six yards from goal but he headed over when he really should have buried the chance. The miss was compounded as Doncaster equalised almost immediately.

There didn’t seem to be much danger as Stewart tried to shepherd Sharp out of play but the cumbersome centre back allowed him enough space to cut a ball back into the six yard box where Hayter reacted first and fired past the helpless Ikeme. Another criminally soft goal from Rangers, whoever the new manager is he has got an almighty job on his hands to make this back four vaguely watertight.

Rangers continued to press forward, not letting the equaliser stop them dead in their tracks as seems to have happened so often this season. Cook managed to trick his way past two Doncaster defenders before firing a cross through the six yards box that somehow managed to evade German, Sullivan and to other Donny players in the vicinity. German then headed home an in swinging free kick from Buzsaky only to be hauled back by the offside flag. Rangers got caught three times from identical free kicks from wide on the left, the Doncaster line was a good one and they were clearly well drilled.

Gorkss got in a superb block on a Sharp strike at the other end before the little striker headed wide albeit from an offside position. He was caught offside time and again on the afternoon and showed little intention of actually trying to haul himself back past the last defender at any point. German too was caught a number of times but in only third league start and first at this level, he has an excuse.

Connolly tried another of his now patented elaborate left foot volleys, a Cook corner fell to him, and he flicked it over his markers head before seeing his strike deflected behind for a corner. With just under fifteen minutes to play Rangers grabbed the winning goal and it was superbly worked.

Ikeme launched a long ball downfield and German once again rose to meet it and this time planted a perfect header into the path of Buzsaky. The midfielder spotted Simpson on the move and picked him out with a delightful pass. The striker got himself turned and then rifled the ball past Sullivan into the bottom corner for his twelfth of the season, his eleventh in the league from just twenty four starts.

Harford had already decided to throw Taarabt on before the goal and pushed ahead with the change. Ramage was the man to make way with Connolly going to right back, Simpson to right midfield, Buzsaky into the middle and Taarabt up top. One substitution had ended up in three positional changes and it didn’t help Rangers at all. Taarabt for his part was wretched when he came on, he looked lazy and disinterested, and it certainly wasn’t what was required.

Doncaster were applying pressure but they weren’t able to test Ikeme at all. Stock fired another shot wide of the target whilst at the other end Simpson missed a great chance to close the game out. He was played in behind the Donny defence but the coolness he showed for his goal deserted him and he thrashed a wild shot wide of the goal. If you are going to miss it then at least get it into the crowd so they can hang onto it, on this occasion the ball was back quickly and Sullivan was playing.

Rangers managed to see out five minutes of injury time, a lot of it added on due to some prat in a pair of red gunts pricking about on the pitch. Had Doncaster equalised in that period then I think a public lynching would have been very much in order. The relief in the ground at the end of the game was palpable, relief that Rangers had managed to get a rare win on the board allied with relief that Il Duce has decided to do what we have all been clamouring for, fuck off! A tough run of games is coming up now though and they are likely to be under the stewardship of a new manager with Warnock and Dowie the front runners. Whichever of them it is will know that they have capable players; it is just a case of getting them motivated.