QPR were denied at least a point at Bramall Lane despite dominating much of this game. After Patrick Agyemang gave Rangers the lead the return of the second half wobbles we thought we’d seen the back of combined with some odd decisions from the officials saw us go down 2-1 in Sheffield.  

After three impressive performances against Watford, Leicester and Chelsea hopes were high that Rangers could turn in another against a struggling Sheffield United side and push Bryan Robson out of the exit door in the process! 

I love going to Bramall Lane, it’s what I call a proper football ground, big yet close and intimate and when it is rocking it kicks up a brilliant atmosphere. However something was lacking this year.  

Perhaps the Blades faithful are bored of watching Captain Marvels troops turn in poor performance after poor performance but it just didn’t feel as imposing as in previous visits. Rangers should have taken advantage of the home fans current malaise, a good performance would have seen them turn but things didn’t go to plan.  

De Canio, boosted by his new signings was able to tinker with the starting line up. Lee Camp was in goal behind Matt Connolly, Fitz Hall, Damion Stewart and Chris Barker. Kieran Lee, Gavin Mahon, Martin Rowlands and Rowan Vine made up the midfield with Akos Buzsaky playing just off Patrick Agyemang who was handed his full debut. Hogan Ephraim had to settle for a place on the bench alongside Dexter Blackstock, Adam Bolder, Simon Walton and local hero Gareth Ainsworth.  

Sheffield United forced the first chance of the game but their early corner came to nothing when Leigh Bromby headed over. Shortly afterwards Lee Hendrie made a good break down the right but his cross was easily gathered by Lee Camp.  

From there on in though Rangers proceeded to dominate the first half and whilst we irritated the home sides box we never really found enough of a cutting edge to take the lead.  

Buzsaky was at the heart of most of the early chances, after fifteen minutes he picked up a good ball on the edge of the box turned his first defender expertly but was dispossessed and had to settle for a corner. From the resulting corner he unleashed a belting drive towards to the top right corner but Paddy Kenny was equal to it, producing a good save. Buzsaky tested the ‘keeper further five minutes later when a free kick was awarded against Billy Sharp but Akos’ effort from the edge of the box was again well saved by Kenny.   

Fitz Hall is proving to be something of a long throw specialist and he was revelling in the massive run up down each side of the Bramall Lane pitch, his throws were already looking dangerous but his third attempt produced the most threatening moment when Buzsaky’s overhead kick nearly caught Kenny out.  

United started fashioning some chances of their own and would have hoped to have done better from a succession of questionable free kicks around the box however they did test Camp twice in the first period, first he put David Carney long range effort past the post and a few minutes later he was forced to palm away Rob Hulse’s acute effort.

The last five minutes of the half proved to be much livelier than the previous forty though, as the ball hit the back of the net twice and should have been buried a third time.  

Five minutes from the break Billy Sharp thought he had put them in front but his good finish was ruled as offside. Then, with the clock ticking down Agyemang opened his Rangers account to give us to lead.  

Connolly chased a ball down into the corner and the youngster put a decent cross into the box which eventually fell to the feet of Agyemang who made no mistake from about six yards out. Patrick blasted home so hard that if there wasn’t a net to stop it the ball would still be in orbit somewhere!  

The home fans were incensed, feeling the ref should have stopped play with Hulse lying injured in the R’s half. Not to worry he’d make up for that later on! 

With the halftime whistle still not forthcoming, Sheffield United really should have equalised. Sharp made a nice break into the box and the lively forward did well to flick it over the advancing Camp, Hulse however managed to put his diving header two feet wide of the empty net. To be fair it was a difficult chance but it was still a let off we should have capitalised on.  

As the players ran out of the second half Kenny gave the poor sod of a groundsman a bit of a mouthful about the state of his goalmouth. I’m not sure what he thought he was going to do with it in fifteen minutes, re-turf it perhaps? Regardless Kenny needed have worried, it would be the other end of the pitch where the game would be won and lost.  

After dominating possession for the first fifteen minutes of the second period all the good work was undone within the space of five minutes as Rangers proceeded to throw the game away with some rank bad defending plus a little helping hand from our happy whistle blower.  

Just after the hour mark The Blades were awarded an inexplicable corner to howls of derision from the travelling Rangers fans and you just knew they’d do something with it. The initial ball was headed clear but Michael Tonge was on hand on the edge of the box to pop it straight back in. Camp punched his shot about six yards and then panic ensued. Rowlands had about three chances to hoof it clear but he floundered at them then Damion Stewart arrived but only succeeded in blasting it past Camp for the OG.

Five minutes later and Rangers were mounting an attack, Buzsaky picked up the ball just outside the Sheffield United box but was brought down from behind before he could unleash his shot. Free kick? Nope, instead The Blades broke up field and hit was proved to be the winning goal, although once again we had plenty of chances to prevent it.  

Billy Sharp’s cross was met by the sliding duo of Connolly and Hendrie, with the ball trapped under Connolly Camp came out of his goal just in time for the ball to pop out from under the former Arsenal man and roll to Hendrie’s feet giving him the perfect angle to bury it home.  

Deep into injury time Rangers could and should have equalised, Vine’s flick from the right caused all sorts of problems in the Sheffield box, Paddy Kenny felt forced to come forward and punch clear but the ball fell to the feet of Buzsaky who lined up an inch perfect half volley into the top right hand corner. However, from nowhere, Matt Kilgallon flew to his left like Gordon Banks circa 1970 to put the ball past the post.  

It was handball, if it wasn’t he must have a neck like Inspector Gadget! We should have had a penalty and Kilgallon should have been walking, however after consulting with the linesman Mr Miller waved away the protests to complete his fine afternoons work. 

All in all a thoroughly disappointing afternoon, I could easily rant about the officials, both of their goals stemmed from poor decisions and the controversy at the end could, and should, have seen us level things from the spot but truth be told if we’d done the simple things right during their goals we’d be celebrating a fantastic 1-0 win.  

It seems it doesn’t matter who is in our back four, when we concede after doing well we go to pieces. I really thought we’d moved past this towards the end of last year but De Canio will need to go back to the drawing board on this one. The influx of signings, whilst exciting can hardly be settling and maybe it’ll take another couple of games for everything to gel once again.  

Next up for Rangers is a home tie against Barnsley which looks very winnable, another week together can only do this new look squad good and I’m hopeful we can move on from this with a good performance at Loftus Road. However with De Canio’s job supposedly insecure once again another panicky display is simply not an option for the Italian.  

Man of the match – Matt Connolly. It’s a hard choice to be honest as we saw bright points from everyone and some awful moments from almost everyone! However for a youngster Connolly is doing a good job covering at right back and for someone who is meant to be more at home in the centre  he provides a fantastic outlet going forward as his assist proves, he was unlucky with the goal and looks to have a bright future ahead of him.