You can't afford to miss so many chances in matches really but it looked like QPR would get away with it and hang on for a win until, in the 88th minute, the defence switched off and surrendered two points. Peter Walton, in the midst of ten minutes of the most incredibly biased refereeing you could ever hope to see, awarded Palace yet another very soft free kick thirty five yards out from goal right of centre for a foul, if you can call it that, by Timoska on Hudson. Mark Kennedy stepped up to take it but before he'd even set off on his run up we looked to be in trouble. Four Palace players queued up at the back post and several were left unmarked, including Clinton Morrison who guided a free header into the bottom corner past Camp for his 100th goal for the club.

Walton, fairly decent and quiet for 75 minutes, ended 15 minutes of astonishing refereeing by denying Buszaky a blatant free kick on the edge of the box and then penalising Mikele Leigertwoodfor the tackle of the game as Palace broke out. I'd love to know what happened or what was said to the referee midway through the second half but some of the decisions he gave in Palace's favour in the closing stages were unbelievable.

Well I'm sure that moment should have come at some point last night but looking at the papers this morning it seems that really happened. Not only did QPR win at last they did it courtesy of a penalty awarded by Peter Walton whose previous pathological fear of awarding Rangers a spot kick under any circumstances really should have seen him sectioned a long time ago and reared its head again for a time in this match.

Sahar was involved again on the half hour as the Peter Walton show returned to Loftus Road with a vengeance. The Israeli bore down on goal and hit the deck on the edge of the six yard box with Shackell wrestling the shirt from his back. Walton, with a long and inglorious history of denying QPR penalties for no good reason, didn't even see the appeal worthy of being waved away.

Hogan Ephraim saw a good low shot beaten out by Marshall and Dublin headed over from a corner at the Loft End but the half ended with two bookings. First Dion Dublin was carded for his involvement in a midfield battle for a loose ball which had challenges flying in from Bolder, Leigertwood, Russell and the veteran defender. There didn't even appear to be a foul to me but Walton quickly arrived on the scene awarding a free kick and booking Dublin who rightly seemed perplexed with the decision. Then Rowan Vine was harshly punished for backing in when it looked like Shackell had climbed over him and Walton booked him for complaining too much. Another vintage performance from the man in the middle.

Then re-enter Peter Walton. Five minutes into the second half Vine made his way into the penalty area after beating Murray wide on the right. The Norwich man had chunks of the striker's shirt in both hands as they entered the area and fell to the ground. A blatant, stone wall penalty kick if ever there was one and yet once again, for about the three hundredth time in the last four seasons, Walton stood unmoved. I mean just what is this guy's problem?

Walton did see fit to award us a free kick on the hour when Bolder was fouled by Jarvis. When Marshall fumbled Rowlands' 30 yard strike a goal looked likely but Norwich scrambled the ball away as Stewart threatened to pounce inside the six yard box. This game was as one sided in QPR's favour as the Cardiff and Southampton matches had been the other way at Loftus Road but unlike those teams Rangers were struggling to make their dominance pay with a goal.

In the end though Norwich, and more importantly Walton, cracked. Rowan Vine got goal side of Murray again and crashed to the ground under pressure. This time, finally, mercifully, a penalty was awarded. It was all a bit of a farce really because although I think it was a penalty it wasn't as blatant as the two appeals he'd ignored earlier. Numerous chances had been missed before this and I have to admit I was starting to fear it might be one of those nights. It needed a brave lad to step up and take the crucial spot kick and luckily we had Martin Rowlands in our team. He stepped up and buried the ball in the bottom corner, lashing the ball as hard as he's ever hit a shot before in his life and sending it flying past Marshall before he'd even started his dive.

Walton was soon back into the spotlight though. Initially he added four minutes which seemed excessive but then he changed it to five and extended that still further to six after a fan in the Paddocks held onto the ball and then threw it away down the field. Twice in that time the ball dropped in the QPR penalty area, on the second occasion Strihavka looked favourite to get to it first and poke home but Camp took it off his toe and Loftus Road let out a collective sigh.

Sodje kicked, pushed, pulled and wrestled with Blackstock constantly for the first half hour, coming out well on top in the battle, but then had the nerve to moan and gesticulate when Blackstock went in for a loose ball with keeper Flahaven - a challenge the keeper himself said was fine and was happy to play on with.

Sodje has learned his trade over many years in leagues from the Conference up and with the referee sending out an early message that he could do what he liked with Blackstock and get away with it he was quids in all night and turned in a good, old fashioned centre half display. If it hadn't been us he was playing against it would have been entertaining to watch, but it was, and Blackstock will be sore in the morning.

Despite being out muscled by the Southend defence, outfought by their midfield and out classed by their attack Rangers were denied a great chance to go in at the break level when Mr Walton denied them a blatant penalty. Lee Cook was too quick for Clarke in the area, nicking the ball away from him and spinning into danger, and the former Blackpool man sent him crashing to earth with a mistimed tackle. The referee had a great view of it but awarded nothing - another stone wall penalty turned down. We must be a due a stack of spot kicks before May. Not the first time this referee has failed to award a blatant penalty to QPR either, he gave a free kick on the edge of the area in the Leeds home game last season when the foul was miles inside. Maybe I shouldn't have said he looks like Brain from Animaniacs - or maybe he's just a useless tosser.

To rub salt into already gaping wounds our picky, niggly and irritating match official Mr Walton decided that in injury time, with Southend already home and dried, he would start booking QPR players and Blackstock, Rowlands and Bolder all saw yellow for mistimed tackles. Ainsworth was earlier booked for a stupid elbow lead aerial challenge with Bradbury.

An even bigger consequence of Lomas' action though was the performance of the referee for the remainder of the half. On three occasions Rangers players were blatantly cut down by their opponents but Mr Walton waved play on each time. The worst incident of this nature came when Lomas himself reached a ball first in the midfield and was hacked to the ground by Izzet. A more blatant foul you could not wish to see and yet Walton waved the game on as Lomas lay stricken on the turf.

Now whatever Lomas said to him, clearly he shouldn't have done. But from that point on, whether it be coincidence or a deliberate act from a referee, his performance was unprofessional and at times put the players in danger because he just point blankly refused to give QPR any kind of decision whatever the level of contact. Colchester soon realised that and understandably started to fly into the tackles.

He even penalised Pat Kanyuka for pinching yards a throw in and awarded it straight to Colchester despite never once telling Kanyuka where to take it from, or warning him that he as in the wrong place. For the rest of the match he was insistent that every QPR throw and free kick was taken from the exact blade of grass on which the foul was committed while allowing Colchester to get on with their set pieces as long as they were in the right half of the field as the foul - he even dispensed with that idea in the dying stages of the second half when he penalised Blackstock for a wonderful ball winning tackle in the Colchester half and allowed the free kick to be taken five yards further infield and the other side of the halfway line. That was with Gregory frantically pointing out the mistake that was right in front of him, the fourth official watching on in bemusement and Geraint Williams laughing.

The only thing there to relieve the frustration at Mr Walton's performance was an improved display from Rangers. Lee Cook got the better of Greg Halford soon after the Lomas booking and made his way to the edge of the penalty area before mis-hitting a shot straight at Gerken. There was nothing mishit about his cross from the right side two minutes later though.

Incredibly after four lengthy injuries, two of which resulted in water breaks and team talks on the touchline, and a goal Mr Walton saw fit to only add on two minutes at the end of the half. It was just as well for Rangers who really did look uncomfortable being in front and had he added on the correct amount, anything up to and including six minutes would have been hard to argue with, Colchester would have been a sound bet to equalise.

As the game wore on Mr Walton became more and more eccentric. He penalised Dexter Blackstock for the best tackle of the match and allowed Colchester to move the ball forward into the other half of the field for the free kick. He awarded the visitors a corner when the ball quite obviously went out off Jackson - a fact you could hardly miss from our seats over a hundred yards away - and then realising his mistake gave a free kick immediately after the corner had been taken for nothing at all.

As the game wound down to a close he found four minutes of injury time (remember two minutes in the first half for four injuries and a goal) and then proceeded to play more than six which included a farcical little passage of play where he awarded Colchester a free kick, then spent a few moments with his linesmen, then spoke to Kanyuka and Iwelumo in the area, and then played on with no further action taken.

There'll be Colchester fans reading this who think I'm one of those fans that moans about the referee every week - I'm not, look at our referee's section, we have a good number of eight and nine ratings from the past two seasons, I only lace into these people when they deserve it and Mr Walton was quite frankly wretched.

Just minutes after the substitution we were awarded a penalty at the School End. After a short corner from Ainsworth, Cook was dragged down right by the touchline. It was a needless, silly challenge as he wasn't going anywhere. There appeared to be a bit of a discussion about who would have it but Ainsworth took charge and placed the ball on the spot. His run up was all wrong though and his weak shot was easily saved much to the delight of the Stokies in the upper tier.

After 73 minutes, and with that oh so familiar sinking feeling that you get as a QPR fan, their equaliser came. Stoke played a quick one-two on the edge of the box and as their man danced into the box Shittu stuck out a leg and he went down. We looked shell-shocked - although quite why I don't know as the writing had been on the wall for a while. Hoefkens stepped up and tucked the penalty neatly away past poor old Paul Jones.

Nineteen minutes in the action again centred around Kus and Lewis with the Pole easily shrugging the American off as he attempted to reach the byline in the R's penalty area. Lewis theatrically hurled himself to the ground and flung his arms up in the air but you don't get decisions like that, even as the home side at Elland Road. It's debateable whether even Mike Riley would have awarded Rooney that one!

The bizarre tactical changes continued throughout the half, I swear I remember Lomas briefly covering the right back position and Lee Cook also moved behind the front two. After Leeds had their man sent off we needed our wingers to be hugging the touchline and really stretching their backline. Or was Cook just trying to get away from Kelly who done a great job on him all afternoon? I don't know - what I do know is that we didn't create enough.