Eagles was substituted at Loftus Road earlier this season after being booked for a dive in the penalty area and subsequently losing his rag – as this game went on Eagles and Adel Taarabtproduced a portfolio of falls so extravagant Tom Daly would have been on his feet applauding had he been in attendance. A shame, because they are both outstanding players who showed flashes of true quality in this game.

Eagles was on the floor again in the twenty first minute, arms outstretched and face turned towards the referee before he’d even hit the ground in the traditional style, but even the whistle happy Mr Jones wasn’t going to award him a penalty for that and nor should he have done as Clint Hill cleanly took the ball as the Burnley man entered the penalty area. A minute later, more time spent rolling around on the grass brought the first yellow card of the game for Faurlin who had given Eagles something to dive about close to the touchline.

This free kick sparked the first prolonged period of Burnley pressure with Matt Connolly forced to head it behind for a corner which Graham Alexander dropped plum onto the back post forcing Kaspars Gorkss into another clearance behind. The third set piece was taken by Fox and although it was initially cleared he re-gathered and delivered deep into the heart of the penalty area where Carlisle met it powerfully but headed wide. Carlisle has made a habit of playing well against QPR since leaving, but looked nervous and heavy legged in this game when asked to do anything other than win ball in the air.

Burnley continued to come into the game as the half hour approached. Bradley Orr followed Faurlin into the referee’s book for a rough shoulder charge on Jay Rodriguez and Kenny needed two attempts to save a low shot from the Burnley youngster down in the bottom right hand corner – although that was the only serious save he had to make all afternoon. At the other end Adel Taarabt tried his luck from similar range and having set off early Grant was lucky that a small deflection carried the ball into his midriff rather than beyond him into the net.

The game had been niggly to this point, not helped by the overbearing and over fussy refereeing style, but it escalated into out and out nastiness five minutes after the break. Hulse was involved again to begin with, collapsing to the ground on the corner of the penalty box clutching his face. This was right in front of the away end, and Hulse clearly felt he had been elbowed by Clarke Carlisle off the ball, but nobody around me saw anything, and neither did the referee.

While Hulse was being treated an argument was taking place on the halfway line between Adel Taarabt, Bradley Orr, Michael Duff and Graham Alexander who, as usual, was never more than ten yards away from the referee offering advice throughout the game. Taarabt was clearly annoyed at the suggestion that he should return the ball to Burnley upon the resumption as QPR had possession when the game was stopped. Referee Jones arrived on the scene, told Taarabt he would indeed be expected to return the ball to Burnley and the Moroccan promptly thumped it out for a Burnley throw down by the corner flag and ordered his team mates to hem the home side in. The Burnley fans reacted with fury, as you would expect, and Neil Warnock actually took their side and lambasted Taarabt for his conduct before ordering Vaagan Moen to receive the throw in and play it back to Lee Grant which he did.

The bad mood was set though and for the next ten minutes Burnley players formed an orderly queue awaiting their turn to have a go at kicking QPR’s captain out of the game. Taarabt produced a couple of dives worse than anything even Eagles had managed that were rightly laughed off by the referee, but also gifted spectators the moment of the match with a sublime piece of control on the turn on halfway that brought a high clearance under his spell and took three Burnley players out of the equation with one fluid movement. It was worth the entrance fee alone.

Having dominated for such long periods of the game it would have been devastating to lose the game in injury time. Paddy Kenny was lucky to escape fumbling a late corner without being punished, and the R’s were indebted to Shaun Derry for a superb covering tackle on Eagles as the Burnley man raced towards the penalty box with men up in support. Going the other way Jack Cork fouled Derry to collect the seventh yellow card of a feisty, but over refereed, encounter.

Leigertwood drilled a shot just wide of Westwood’s post and then on the hour Taarabt beat the keeper all ends up with a magnificent 20 yard lob that agonisingly bounced back into play off the cross bar. That was Cantona like in its execution and would have been just rewards for Taarabt and QPR whose play when in possession was a joy to behold at times. Taarabt had another shot wide and Routledge was denied a clear run on goal after more expansive passing from Faurlin by van Aarnholt who appeared to pass the ball back to Westwood as he won it but the keeper picked the ball up without action from referee Mike Jones. Jones was forced to produce a yellow card for first van Aarnholt and then Cork who both hacked down the insatiable Taarabt.

Thereafter there was only one team in it. Coventry dropped very deep and started to employ cynical tactics that included to flagrant time wasting for which goalkeeper Westwood was eventually booked. In fairness to the keeper the rules do still stupidly allow keepers to pick the side they take their goal kicks from and that was what he did every single time. Why that is I do not know - you cannot take corners from whatever side you like and the only thing this achieves is giving keepers a chance to waste time.

With ten minutes to go Magilton reinforced our new ‘what we have we hold’ approach to the game by putting Steven Reid on for Taarabt. Again, this made no sense to me. Taarabt head caused Coventry problems all afternoon and as they pushed forwards looking for an equaliser he was sure to get more chances to do so. From not making sense initially the change was rendered a complete disaster as Coventry scored an equaliser immediately after it was made. Buzsaky stupidly left a leg in on Stephen Wright to the right of the QPR penalty area and the full back gratefully accepted the gift and hit the deck. Michael McIndoe whipped the free kick into the near post and with the defence nowhere to be seen and Cerny flapping wildly Richard Wood was able to steal in and equalise.

With Taarabt gone it may have made sense to introduce Patrick Agyemang especially as City were quickly reduced to ten men. Stephen Wright was the man to go, for the second consecutive season at Loftus Road, for yet another crude, cynical and totally deliberate foul on Akos Buzsaky. Wright, who saw fit to throw his captain’s armband at the referee on the way off, epitomised everything that was bad about City – quite happy to kick his way through a more talented opponent in the name of getting a draw. Clearly by his reaction, and from what Coleman said afterwards, they didn’t believe he should have been sent off. I’m forced to wonder just how often they feel Coventry players should be allowed to physically assault opponents without picking up cards? You could not wish to see a more blatant double yellow red card than this and apart from his fouls on Leigertwood and Buzsaky that drew cards he got away with numerous others. No amount of Morrison trying to hold the referee’s arms down by his side could change his mind and he was certainly lucky to get away with that himself.

Despite there being no injuries, no goals and no substitutions referee Jones added a minute onto the first half officially, and then played more to allow Chelsea to take first a free kick and then a corner. The free kick was a harsh call, given against Martin Rowlands for what looked like honest endeavour amongst a crowd of opponents. Belletti hit a trade mark thunder bolt over the wall and Heaton had to come across and bat the ball away for a corner. Time had long since expired but Chelsea were allowed to proceed anyway – Gorkss got the crucial clearance in to prevent heartbreak right on half time.

Rangers then had reason to feel aggrieved with the referee again as Jones ridiculously punished Simpson for a perfectly fair shoulder to shoulder challenge with Mikel short of halfway, and then immediately awarded another more clear cut one on the edge of the penalty box. As usual in these situations Frank Lampard stepped forward to take it and as usual he just pelted it hard into the wall at about waist height. Now I know full well that there examples of spectacular Frank Lampard free kicks knocking around but is it only me that thinks his technique of simply walking up and walking it seems to work once in a hundred attempts, if that? When the likes of Belletti are on the field should this agricultural method of taking free kicks even be given the time of day? Who cares is the answer to that, certainly not me on Wednesday night, but it is an irritation of mine when watching Chelsea as a neutral.

With their next attack Chelsea took the lead, and again Mike Jones was at the centre of things. Tearing into the Chelsea half with the ball at his feet Wayne Routledge was clearly tripped as he danced across the face of the penalty area. He stayed on his feet, possibly with a very harsh booking for diving at Scunthorpe still fresh in his mind, but lost the ball. Instead of bringing play back as he should Jones waved play on, Chelsea stormed down the other end and with suspicion of a handball from Cole in the build up and then offside when the pass was finally played Kalou was able to slot home the opening goal off the base of the far post past the helpless Heaton. QPR with very good reason to feel aggrieved.

Possibly in an attempt to make amends Jones then presided over a couple of soft QPR free kicks around the Chelsea penalty area and they in turn resulted in a series of corner kicks. However as with the open play opportunities to deliver in the first half the final ball was often found wanting with only a well flighted Buzaky corner that looked to be landing plum on the head of Kaspars Gorkss steaming in at the back post before it was cleared really troubling the hosts. When in advanced wide positions Chelsea still looked to pick out team mates, whereas QPR in similar circumstances were happy every time to play a percentage ball into the box with nobody in particular in mind. It was another one of those small differences that added up to a cup exit for Rangers.

Southampton started the second half with two quick fire bookings as Jones got a little bit whistle happy. James and McGoldrick for fouls on Ephraim and Lopez respectively. Whether it was these cards or the lack of threat from QPR but the home crowd started to stir on both sides of the away end which, combined with plenty of noise from the back of the away end, made for quite a decent atmosphere despite the swathes of empty seats around the ground.

Southampton responded with a couple of half chances – a spectacular diving headed clearance from Stewart denied Saganowski a sight of goal and then Euell was denied at the back post by a well timed block from Ramage who, as on Tuesday, played reasonably well. Stewart became the second QPR player to be booked just after the hour for pushing Kelvin Davis as he tried to get a quick clearance from a corner away down the field – the home crowd bayed for a red card initially and Stewart was clearly riled about something but Jones played safe with a yellow.

Jones had two penalty appeals to deal with in the second half. The first was for a foul on Blackstock by Saeijis that looked to me like it could easily have brought a spot kick but was waved away. Later in the day when Bradley Wright Phillips had been brought on he too hit the deck in the penalty area but brought little response from the match official – that one was too far away for me to judge. Sorry, turned into Arsene Wenger for a moment there.

Other than that the only feature of Luton's play was Richard Langley who hacked down Lee Cookwith a crude challenge that didn't even earn a talking to from the referee in the first half. In the second period he stood over Stefan Bailey and accused him of faking injury as Prav Mathema ran onto the pitch to administer treatment. Quite frankly for somebody that spends as much time rolling around on the floor picking up injuries and free kicks Mr Langley would do well not to engage in such antics. His actions disappointed me because like I say I felt the booing before both cup games was uncalled for and I've stuck up for him on numerous occasions.

Nygaard's single handed miss of the season competition was brought to a close with twenty minutes left for play and Ray Jones was introduced to the game but two minutes later the game turned with an ugly incident just inside the QPR half. Stefan Bailey flung himself into a two footed tackle on Brkovic and a ruck ensued.

As Brkovic lay receiving treatment Coyne and the other Luton players steamed in and confronted Bailey which resulted in a mass session of handbag swinging. The referee, who'd completely ignored his assistants to this point, suddenly decided he fancied a word with them and after a brief consultation he produced a red card for Bailey. I thought at the time that it was deserved and, with the new rules as they are, there's nothing on the replay to suggest otherwise.

Bailey refused to go quietly, confronting the referee and apparently catching the him with his forehead. He then stormed off down the pitch waving his arms around wildly at both sets of fans and players. Ultimately Lee Cook was forced to coordinate a makeshift stewarding effort around the tunnel and Richard Hill ran across from the bench to get Bailey away down the tunnel. Coyne was booked for his part in the altercation.

Santos went to ground with around 15 minutes remaining and looked to be in a fair bit of pain as he was rolling around on the floor. A stretcher was called for and big Georges was taken from the field. Prav signalled to the bench that he could do with another minute to look at the big man off the pitch. Meanwhile, Southampton continued to pile more pressure on the already stretched 10 man Rangers. We continued to delay the sub and during this time the Saints earned themselves a penalty. A cross went into the box from the right and Quashie went to ground in a crowd of players following a clash with Lomas.