Today we witnessed the opening game of the reign of Rangers new dynamic duo of Paul Hart and Mick Harford, the opponents Sheffield United.
Jenson returned from his holiday in Cypress and joined Lofty, California Hoop, Sam and myself in the stands on what was a cold afternoon in W12.
Paul Hart made no changes from the team that courageously battled to the draw at West Brom on Monday night. Angelo Balanta returned to the bench after being ruled out by injury since the start of the season.
Rangers got off to the perfect start with a goal in the opening 90 seconds.
Watson's inswinging corner was only cleared as far as skipper Mikele Leigertwood and his shot was deflected as it flew goalwards and buried itself in the bottom right corner of the Blades goal.
The lead didnt last long as five minutes later the scores were level. Ben Watson was guilty of giving the ball away cheaply in the right corner of the R's defence and quicker than you could moan about it the ball ended up in the back of the net. Kallio centred his cross into the path of Richard Cresswell and he managed to scramble the ball into the back of Cerny's goal.
Sheffield United put in a typical battling performance and really managed to slow the tempo of the game down and really stifle the Rangers attack. The remaining 80 minutes of the game were played between to battling sides that were playing a game of chess and were unable to break each other down.
Two very strong penalty shouts were somehow waved away during the second half, firstly it was Jay Simpson who was about to pull the trigger and he was swept off his feet and bundled to the floor, it looked stonewall but apparently not. The secind shout was when Kaspers Gorkss was bundled to the floor and it was quite clear for both the ref and linesman to see but yet again the shout for a penalty by the R's were waved away once again.
In the final moments of the game and with Rangers looking to press for the all important winner there was one more chance it the game and it fell to the R's. A delightful cross from the right found Ben Watson's head and it looked as if it was destined to fly into the top corner but agonisingly we all witnessed the ball smack the bar and into safety.
As ever Kevin Blackwell's Blades came in with a game plan to close down the R's and not allow the Rangers dangermen any space to create anything and really suffocated the midfield. A draw is a fair result but it would've just been nice to see Rangers change their game plan and try something different when their backs were against the wall.
Todays Man of the Match is awarded to Tommy Williams for some very good defending and also the attacking presence he bought to the R's left hand side and floated in a number of great crosses that caused problems in the Blades defence.
I'd like to apologise now for the lateness of this report today. I have been suffering with a bout of food poisoning thoughtout the day and has hindered my progress in writing all day.
Finally Myself and Lofty would like to thank you for your support that you give us in our efforts on here and we'd like to wish u a very merry christmas and a superb new year!
U R'SSSS!!!
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