Waddock was forced into two changes following the draw at Sheffield Wednesday last week. Jones was in goal behind Bignot, Evatt, Shittu and Milanese. Ainsworth, Bircham, Lomas and Cook were in midfield behind Gallen and Nygaard.

Brighton started the game brightly and forced a corner after barely a minute. The delivery came to nothing though and it seemed to wake Rangers up a bit as they set about pushing The Seagulls back at every opportunity. As is often the case these days Lee Cook seemed to be the best outlet for Rangers and Milanese was looking to feed him in whenever possible.

Nygaard and Gallen were holding the ball up well and trying to link play and the former should have given Rangers the lead. Ainsworth sent a cross in to the near post and Nygaard slid in to finish. He got his contact all wrong though and managed to send the ball veering away from the target.

There wasn’t long to wait though before Rangers did hit the front. Good work on the left saw the ball shifted to Cook and he curled a perfect cross toward the far post. Brighton seemed to be distracted by the presence of Nygaard and didn’t pick up Ainsworth charging in behind him. He nodded the ball home for his seventh of the season, the fifth with his head.

It was a deserved lead, Brighton had been under the cosh from the word go and they were struggling to put any sort of response together. Jones easily held a shot from Carole from outside the box as he enjoyed the easiest of afternoons. Any sight of goal that Brighton were getting was being handed to them by Rangers. Evatt could not haul himself off the ground to win his headers against Kazim-Richards; luckily Shittu alongside him was having no such issues.

At the other end Rangers were hardly peppering Henderson’s goal themselves despite enjoying masses of possession. Crosses seemed to be going to nobody, shots were flying wide and you got the feeling that we might end up regretting it. Bircham was disrupting things in the middle of the park, for both sides! He was getting his foot in and breaking up the Brighton attacks and then giving the ball away cheaply to do a similar job on the Rangers ones.

A one goal lead at the break was scant reward for all of their possession and five minutes into the second half the game was changed by the ref. Seemingly out of nothing referee Leake was flashing his red card at Gallen much to the bemusement of the entire ground. Paul McShane was on the deck holding his face although this seemed to get much better once the R’s skipper was on his way. Gallen was apoplectic with rage as he left the field, perhaps as much as angry at himself as with the Brighton mans histrionics. The Seagulls have form though we shouldn’t forget; McGhee sends his teams out to make the most of this type of situation.

Nygaard was ploughing a lone furrow up front but he wasn’t being helped by the quality of the balls into him. It is no good just smashing it aimlessly for him to chase, that’s not what his game is about. Ten minutes of that and Waddock made a bold change. Cook and Nygaard came off and Baidoo and Youssouf came on. We now had two up top again to give the Brighton defence something to think about and a target for the boys at the back to aim for.

Brighton were getting more of the ball by default, luckily they were appalling in possession of it and despite the man advantage were struggling to create anything. Bignot surrendered a corner when trying to be clever and head the ball back to Jones. The delivery had Jones flapping but nobody could get a header on target.

Baidoo and Youssouf were causing problems for the massively overweight Butters and the incredibly fragile McShane. They had no answer to the pace of Baidoo and one surging run ended with him crashing a fierce shot over the bar. The miss would prove to be costly as soon afterwards Bignot handed Brighton a lifeline they scarcely deserved.

There seemed to be little pressure on Bignot as he got under a high ball into the box. As usual he let it bounce and handed the initiative to the opposition. Now he had a problem, Loft was at his back and instead of just hooking it away he tried to head it back to Jones from six yards, only problem was he missed him. Before he knew what was happening the ball was nestling in the corner and Brighton were on level terms. It was a horrendous error from a player that has most definitely seen better days. If he is anything more than a bit part player next season I will be stunned.

Rangers were reeling but tried to get back to the other end for a winner. Ainsworth had a chance with a direct freekick but his searing effort screamed over the bar with Henderson beaten. Then Baidoo contrived to miss a chance that had everyone scratching their heads. Milanese swung an excellent ball into the box and Youssouf headed down at the far post. The ball flashed into the six yard box where Shabba was on hand to tuck it away. Only problem was he seemed to run past it and the chance went begging.

At the final whistle the crowd acclaimed the efforts of the players but they should have been acclaiming the victory. Had it not been for the sending off then I think we would have had the game wrapped up long before Bignot’s aberration. The game should have been done and dusted by the break though and Waddock needs to get some work done on converting possession into goals. This was a problem his predecessor also had so you have to wonder whether some changes in personnel are required.

Jones didn’t have much to do in the game despite the fact that two of his back four were not exactly solid. Evatt wouldn’t get off the deck if it was on fire and Bignot was hesitant too many times. Shittu and Milanese were excellent though, with the latter playing as well as he ever has for Rangers.

In midfield Cook was doing well before he was taken off as Waddock tried to shore things up. Ainsworth was working hard and took his goal well, Lomas and Bircham defended well but didn’t offer enough going forward, and I would have liked to have seen Langley thrown on for a bit of creativity in the middle of the park.

 Gallen was daft if he lamped McShane and conned if he didn’t and Nygaard looked short of fitness whilst he was on. Both subs looked lively and I wouldn’t mind seeing Youssouf or Baidoo get a longer run out at Cardiff next week.

simon@qprnet.com