Rangers went into this London derby making some enforced changes. Matthew Rose was rested after an elbow injury so Ian Baraclough moved into the centre of defence. The return of Jermaine Darlington filled the right wing back spot whilst Paul Bruce came in for Leon Jeanne on the left.

The Rangers fans were in good voice sharing the away end with Charlton supporters which made for a sometimes-heated evening but did produce a much louder atmosphere than the cup game when we took twice as many supporters. Rangers got off to an attacking start with Darlington breaking down the right with pace and skill but Charlton broke well and gave Rangers fans the moment many were dreading.

The first bit of pressure from Charlton saw our defence panic and poor clearances by Baraclough and Ready invited Shaun Newton to fire his shot into the top corner from the edge of the box. Although Ready will be blamed by many for what was a pathetic clearance, the amount of space Newton found himself in was also a concern.

Charlton looked like a team who were about to go up and they tore Rangers apart early on with a mixture of hard work and skill. Too often they found themselves with plenty of time and space in midfield and Steve Brown and Mark Kinsella both had the freedom of midfield to fire shots wide of Lee Harpers goal.

Rangers needed to get a grip of the game and worked very hard to shut Charlton out. The midfield and attack (especially Kiwomya) got behind the ball and made it difficult for Charlton and despite the home team have most of the possession the quote of Alan Brazil that this would be a "Cricket score" proved absolute nonsense.

Back in the Rangers end some trouble appeared to break out at the back of the stand. Gavin Peacock and Kevin Gallen both looked on from the corner flag. I can't really comment on what happened, the police were soon up there and the usual rumours went around quickly from "It's kicked off up there" to "an old mans had a heat attack". Hopefully it was the first (not that I like to see fighting but I just hope an old man didn't have a heart attack) and any problems seemed to be ironed out pretty quickly.

Back to the action and Rangers offered very little as an attacking threat but did play some nice stuff at times. Langley and Murray were doing well in midfield whilst Perry and Darlington stood out in defence with Darlington our most dangerous player going forward. Possibly our best moment came from a break away after Charlton almost scored. A quick passing move involving Langley, Murray and Kiwomya saw Rangers break down the left and the ball in for Beck saw the front man crowded out but won a corner. Not the most exciting moment now I am writing this but it seemed good at the time.

Half time came and Rangers needed to inject some life into the attack. My suggestion to a bloke at the crowded hot dog bar was to bring on Gallen and Peacock for Beck and Wardley but the mentioned of Gallen brought a few groans from those around me. Second half did see changes and it was beck who went off but it was Murray who joined him much to my surprise. Peacock and Taylor came on and Rangers immediately attacked Charlton and Kiwomya was unlucky to get on the end of a neat through ball.

Charlton then did what they do best and kept possession from Rangers but again failed to take their chances as a few headers drifted wide and shots went well over. For a side destined for the Premiership, I am surprised at how few chances their strikers take and I would expect them to struggle again in the Premiership for goals unless they buy a few players.

Enough of Charlton for the minute and back to Rangers and that little shit John Robinson was involved in a controversial incident. He threw himself down like he had been shot in the face (oo err misuses) and then tried to take the piss out of Darlignton with some skills. That didn't work and Jermaine then used some skills of his own to send one player on his arse and then go past Robinson before a tackle from behind left our player with a suspected broken leg.

The Charlton fans laughed at Jermaine limp away and then fall to the ground in what was admittedly a pretty dramatic fall. Even Alan Brazil back on Sky laughed but Mr Brazil was watching through a monitor and should have seen he was in a lot of pain and not faking. Sitting in a stand it is easy to get things wrong and call players a cheat when they are actually injured but this bloke can see in front of him the pain that Jermaine was in but just laughed.

The referee also saw nothing wrong and played on. Kevin Gallen came on for Rangers and changed the game for us. He held the ball up well and used it well with sensible passing. Chris Powell struggled against him and Gallen actually beat his man for pace and whipped in a good cross which Langley lined up for a shot but was brought down right on the edge of the area.

Langley lined up the free kick but curled it over the bar when he could have done a little better. Rangers were slowly pushing Charlton back getting a few corners and thrown ins and Charlton began to play the ball into the corner flags with over 15 minutes left. This seemed to encourage Rangers and a few substitutions by Charlton also seemed to show signs of nerves.

Rangers kept plugging away and got a goal on 81 minutes. A free kick by Baraclough was taken short to Bruce who was closed down quickly. He won the ball back though and produced an excellent cross, which Dean Kieley flapped at. Wardley did excellently to win the header among all those bodies and nodded it across for Taylor to head into an empty neat. It seemed to take ages to cross the line but watching on tv later it wasn't as lucky as it seeemd at the time.

The Rangers end went wild with delight with the Pig bag and silly dance soon breaking out. We began to believe we could nick it and Charlton looked very dodgy everytime we produced a decent cross into the box. Just as Rangers seemed to have nicked a point they threw it away with some poor defending. A mix up between Ready and Harper saw the defender clear to touch. Better communication was needed on both sides and from the throw in Andy Hunt turned well and crossed for a replica of the FA Cup goal. This time it was Scott Parker who got in front of Langley and the ball just seemed to hit him and go in. The quality of the cross was the killer and we all knew in the away end that we had blown it.

But had we (well yes but bear with me), another ball into the box caused problems and Taylor's shot was flying into the bottom corner but a Charlton defender got an excellent block on the ball. Then we saw a few handbags. Firstly Langley was kicked by Robinson so the youngster went up in my estimations my kneeing him in the bollocks. A Charlton player then threw the ball at Langley's head but the referee did the right thing and just calmed the players down and did not show yellow cards. Kiwomya and Powell then clashed with Kiwomya reputation getting him the blame but it was clearly Powell who threw a punch at Kiwomya. If someone done that to me I think I would have reacted like Kiwomya although again it was all handbags and no harm was really done. The referee booked both players and then blew for full time. Rangers end up without an away derby win since 1995.