Rangers looked to build off the comeback against Hull in, the always tetchy, away game at Stoke City. Lee Cook was left on the bench and Marcus Bean returned to the side as we ran out 2-1 winners. Ian Holloway had taken the team ten pin bowling the day before the match rather than risk anyone more injuries in training and it seemed pay off, although rumour has it Matthew Rose hurt his wrist during a particularly tricky spare attempt. 

The game will be remembered for the assault on Simon Royce by a Stoke fan who ran on the pitch at the end of the game. Jake Cole made the fatal mistake of defending his colleague from the attack and was later clobbered by The FA, who are still deciding on Stoke’s punishment at the time of writing.

The FA Cup third round draw gave us the exciting/depressing (delete as appropriate) prospect of a visit to Mark Hughes’ Blackburn Rovers in January.

Gianni Paladini leapt to Ian Holloway’s defence after he was criticised in the press by the clubs Life President, Harold Winton. "Ian Holloway has got two and a half years left on his contract and we are talking about extending it,” he said "He is the most fantastic human being I have met in my life”. For his part, Olly pointed out that Winton had been sick lately and not been to many games, which was ironic because I’d been to them all and felt pretty sick myself.  

The Evening Standard was forced to issue a groveling apology to QPR after printing articles relating to Paladini’s business dealings. “If these articles were interpreted by readers as suggesting that Mr. Paladini was guilty of fraud, corruption and malpractice, we apologise,” it said through gritted teeth. 

Joe Gallen’s youngsters were beaten 2-1 in the FA Youth Cup by Aston Villa, Shabazz Baidoo had cancelled out an early Villa opener but hearts were broken when the visitors snatched a second half winner.  

Danny Shittu declared that things were going in the right direction once again following the victory at Stoke. "The win has given us a lot of confidence,” he said “when you lose it affects everyone, but the buzz is back!”

Ian Holloway stuck with the same eleven that won in Stoke as we were on our travels again, this time to face Ipswich Town. Stefan Moore and Paul Furlong goals had left us on the verge of back to back away wins but a last minute equalizer from Danny Hayes left us with just a point.  

Coventry nicked all three points at Loftus Road in our next game, Ian Holloway watched his side miss a host of chances only to concede a penalty in the dying minutes, which was duly converted by Coventry, their only shot on target all game. Simon Royce was sent off for the foul and would have to sit out the Boxing Day match at Brighton.

Jake Cole came in to replace him in a match we were destined to lose as soon as Rob Styles was announced as the official. Guy Butters early goal was enough to give the home side all three points and Rangers saw a blatant penalty appeal predictably ignored by Styles.

It was back to the Loftus Road to face Cardiff on the 28^th as the games came thick and fast over the Christmas period. Olly made five changes to the side that lost against Brighton with Simon Royce, Marc Nygaard, Lee Cook and Matthew Rose all returning to the starting line up. It was Nygaard that scored the only goal of the game to win the match for Rangers in a much improved performance.  

And the year ended, as it usually does, on New Years Eve with a trip to Crewe and what an odd game that turned out to be. Some quite awful defending combined with some very good finishing produced an exciting, back and forth affair which Rangers eventually won 4-3. Crewe took the lead initially, but goals from Cook and Baidoo put us 2-1 up. However the lead didn’t last long as Luke Varney equalized two minutes later and Billy Jones put the home side 3-2 at the break. Thankfully though a goal of the season strike from Martin Rowlands pulled us level again before Richard Langley snatched the winner with ten minutes left to play.  

So after a terrible couple of months Rangers finished the year with two good wins, we were sitting comfortably in 13^th place and Ian Holloway had just received the backing to end all backings from his Chairman. Things looked pretty stable going into 2006.

< CONTINUE TO JANUARY 2006 >