Taarabt was at the heart of the action again just before the quarter hour when he delivered a wonderful cross to the back post where Heidar Helguson had peeled away and seemed destined to score with a diving header but missed the ball altogether. The reaction of the players, and the fact that the ball was so far away from Helguson’s dive, suggests strongly that McCarthy had succeeded in flicking the cross away for a corner with his head but Atkinson awarded a goal kick.

QPR were playing well and looking good for more goals, but the quality of Danns in midfield and the keenness of Vaughan in attack meant Palace always posed a threat of their own when they had the ball in the QPR half. Danns had only a yellow card to show for his first half efforts, the referee taking exception to his late hit on Hill as he cleared the ball in a similar incident to the one Vaughan had been booked for earlier, but looked tidy and threatening whenever he had the ball. Likewise Vaughan, who could perhaps count himself unlucky to be penalised for a sly push in the back of Hall that allowed him to race in behind the QPR defence for what would have been a one on one chance with Paddy Kenny had it not been brought back by Atkinson.

Taarabt is a different physical specimen altogether but he showed tremendous upper body strength to hold off the considerable attentions of McCarthy until the Irish centre back completely lost the plot and hacked his opponent down in the penalty area. This was as clear a penalty as you’re ever likely to see – Rangers have had 12 spot kicks this season, and Palace have conceded a league leading 13. That’s no surprise on either count really because people like Taarabt, Helguson, Routledge, Mackie and Smith are hard working, skilful players who unsettle defenders and force fouls and on the other side of the coin Palace are unfortunately lumbered with a collection of centre backs who are a dire combination of stupid, clumsy and at times, in Claude Davis’ case, violent.

Patrick McCarthy was, is and always will be a dog of a centre back – persistently caught the wrong side of his man despite his years in the game and with a chip on his shoulder a mile wide when it comes to referees. He is the worst, most accident prone defender in this league except for Alex Bruce at Leeds . Week after week you’ll find him trying to retrieve a situation his own goldfish like concentration levels have caused by fouling the player and then screaming at the match officials to try and intimidate them into lenient action. He can perhaps have a case for not being sent off here, as Taarabt was fast running out of pitch and would have done well to score, but how McCarthy, Speroni, Gardner and others thought they had any kind of case to surround referee Martin Atkinson with on the spot kick is beyond me.

Anyway protests lodged and ignored, McCarthy dispatched to the baths, Davis readied to replace Iverson and the whole situation brought under control it was time for the penalty. The unfathomable formula that helps Heidar Helguson and Adel Taarabt work out whose turn it is to do the honours this week came out on the side of the Icelandic striker and he made light work of rolling the ball past a goalkeeper who has caused us untold problems in the past to give Rangers a deserved lead.

The Palace fans at the other end of the ground responded to this by throwing bottles onto the pitch in the general direction of Paddy Kenny as an expression of their own frustration and frankly who can blame them? Three weeks ago similarly aggrieved Millwall fans decided to pelt Middlesbrough goalkeeper Jason Steele and one of the assistant referees with beer bottles during a match at the New Den. So many of them did it in fact that referee Chris Sarginson called a halt to the game and told both managers he was minded to abandon it altogether fearing for his own safety and that of the other officials and Middlesbrough players. The FA, when they weren’t busy terrorising the QPR support last week, ruled that Millwall had no case to answer for this and will face no charges. So there it is lads, precedent set. If you don’t like what’s going on down there on the field then start throwing things at the people doing it – don’t worry about your club getting fined or losing points or playing games behind closed doors because no action will be taken.

It’s the most perverse ruling the fucking idiots running out game have come up with since QPR were fined for having their goalkeeper attacked on the pitch by a Stoke fan at the end of a game at the Britannia Stadium. It will no doubt be reversed at some point in the near future, probably when one of the high profile Premiership players gets smacked in the face by a bottle provoking some mass hysteria in the papers and opinion columns about the lawless society we live in which will then force the FA to come down like a tonne of bricks on whichever club was unfortunate enough to be the home team that day, but in the meantime the potentially lethal precedent stands – you throw what you like lads, there’ll be no punishment coming your way.

Paddy Kenny cleared the penalty area himself, looking for all the world like he was preparing for one of his much sung about parties, while Shaun Derry attempted to calm the supporters of his former club. The stewards, as usual when anything actually needs doing at Loftus Road , did nothing at all.

Perhaps feeling that he’d been a little unkind to the visitors Martin Atkinson offered an olive branch by way of a weak free kick on the edge of the area for a perceived foul on James Vaughan. The free kick was perfectly placed for Darren Ambrose to hit – he may have been in the defensive wall had circumstances worked out differently in the summer – but he couldn’t find the target with a shot from 25 yards.

Rangers wouldn't have deserved a penalty equaliser even if they had been awarded. Furlong was introduced for Blackstock and although he looked sharp and got the ball moving a bit the chronic lack of width provided by the formation meant they never looked like scoring and Stoke were always comfortable. Marcus Bignot's mishit cross which Simonsen claimed right under his bar was as good as it got - and there's no way in the world that can be counted as a shot.

Just to infuriate the travelling faithful further the only chance to get a decent cross in the box with this formation was from corners and after taking a dismal short one in the first half, Milanese and Smith did exactly the same in the second half and it was again blocked away without reaching the penalty area. Quickly taken short corners when two on one out wide are a good idea, short corners when Stoke are back and it's two on two by the flag are a stupid, idiotic waste of time, which ironically is what this trip north turned out to be for the QPR fans.

Milanese compounded matters with a yellow card for a cynical handball preventing a Stoke break on halfway. Atkinson allowed an advantage to unfold before returning to book Milanese later. Nygaard was also carded for a clumsy foul on Duberry.