A minute later Rangers failed to cope with a basic, long, straight free kick into the penalty area which Parkin won comfortably in the air and nodded down to Ross Wallace whose shot was blocked away for a corner. When not taking the free kicks himself Wallace made a point of standing a good five or six yards offside behind the QPR defence so it was frustrating on this occasion that having become active when receiving the ball from Parkin the flag was not raised – although the way the modern offside rule is structured he was technically ok to play on, however ridiculous that may seem to everybody in the ground apart from the officials.

It was Preston’s turn to feel aggrieved with the referee on the quarter hour though when Matt Hill gave the ball away with a poor pass, then rashly hacked down Billy Jones in an attempt to rectify the situation and escaped without a booking. With that offence still fresh in the mind Hill was yellow carded for a more meagre trip on Richard Chaplow ten minutes later with Haines keen to stress that the accumulation of fouls had brought the sanction, rather than that one particular innocuous incident.

Preston didn’t have to wait long for another opportunity as Haines continued to blunder his way through the game, this time penalising Damion Stewart for the cleanest defensive header you could ever wish to see. I have to say despite the outrage at the decision I couldn’t help but laugh at Stewart’s foot stamping, arm swinging, two year old in the super market tantrum in front of the referee – a six foot three, 16 stone Jamaican man behaving like that is quite a sight – and in the end it worked out in our favour as Wallace drilled his free kick into the wall and Rangers then stormed away down the left flank and a better first touch from Antonio German on the edge of the area would have had him racing clean through on goal after more quality approach play and a fine pass from Adel Taarabt. German, and his manager, both immediately put their hands on their heads knowing what an excellent opportunity that had been to take the lead.

It was hugely frustrating therefore to see the R’s fall behind eight minutes before the break. A fine challenge by Kaspars Gorkss in the area toed the ball away from Mellor and out for a corner which Ross Wallace came across to take. The Scottish midfielder then plonked the ball down by the corner flag and absolutely leathered it straight at Hogan Ephraim, who had chased back to try and prevent the set piece and was now dealing with his socks a yard away from where the corner was to be taken. Wallace went absolutely mental, demanding Ephraim be booked and then sticking his forehead in Ephraim’s face like some wild stag. It was the most amazing piece of behaviour I’ve seen for some time on a football field and reminded me of that bloody Dario Gradi Crewe team that got players booked as a matter of routine by immediately slamming free kicks against any opponent who happened to be passing within the ten yard radius at the time of the award.

Ephraim seemed to find the whole thing very amusing but Rangers may well have switched off as the referee calmed things down by the touchline because when Wallace did eventually get round to taking a proper corner his mishit, low effort was allowed to fly right to the centre of the goal past the statuesque defenders and Billy Jones, up from the back for Preston, had time for two touches before he slammed the ball into the roof of the net with his third. As soft a goal as you’re ever likely to see conceded.

Sadly the dregs of society to the left of the away end were able to leap around like caged zoo animals ten minutes after the break as Preston doubled their advantage. Again it came against the run of play, Taarabt had had a shot saved by Lonergan just before it, and again it came from Stewart and Gorkss’ total failure to deal with the physical threat posed by the Preston forwards. A routine ball into the area from the left caused all manner of problems with Gorkss never once the right side of his man, in the end the Latvian wrestled Parkin to the ground for, whatever Neil Warnock says, a clear and obvious spot kick. As Rangers have found out before Preston are just about the worst side you can give a penalty away to as the division’s most reliable spot kick taker Callum Davidson rarely gives goalkeepers a sniff of a chance. You’ll never see a better finish from 12 yards than his one on Saturday – it went like an exocet missile into the top corner before Ikeme even realised it had been taken. Superb.

With Rangers throwing every man possible forward gaps at the other end were inevitable. Mellor volleyed a half chance over the bar in Preston’s next attack, then missed a glorious chance to seal the victory when the Rangers defence melted away in front of him, although Gorkss had good cause to seek explanation from the referee as Parkin blatantly barged him over off the ball to prevent him getting to Mellor, but Ikeme produced a superb save one on one to deny the former Liverpool man. That miss proved crucial as Rangers stormed to the other end and equalised.