QPR were beaten by an injury time goal yet again on Boxing Day as Plymouth's Sylvain Ebanks Blake converted after a goal mouth scramble in the closing seconds.

Another game, another heartbreaking last minute goal conceded by QPR. This is the fifth time already this season that we've conceded in the dying embers of a game - Bristol City, Palace away, Coventry, Blackpool and now Plymouth. With those seven points we'd now be 15th in the league, seven points clear of the relegation zone.

It's not really any one individual's fault either, just an all round lack of ability throughout the team and a scandalous attitude towards possession of the football. I've never seen a team treat the football with the contempt that our players are doing at the moment. Every bloody match is the same, we start alright and maybe go in front, but as the game wears on we give the ball away more and more.

Some of the things we did with the ball yesterday should be criminal under this country's law. Twice for instance Chris Barker was penalised for a foul throw deep in his own half, immediately turning the ball over to Plymouth in an attacking position. When we did manage to take a legal throw in we were back to giving the ball away within two touches again - there are other options for a throw in than chucking it down the line Rangers. Compare and contrast with Plymouth who regularly had the ball in their possession in space on the opposite side of the field within three or four touches of taking a throw in.

The distribution from the back was shocking, the midfield was non-existent, ball retention was pathetic, absolutely pathetic. It should come as no surprise to anybody that we keep letting in goals in injury time, what else do we expect to happen if every time we get the ball we immediately give it straight back to the opposition? Our chances of conceding these heartbreaking goals would decrease massively if we were actually able to keep hold of the ball for five or six passes at a time. It's not a lot to ask for and it shouldn't be difficult for professional footballers to do.

The eleven footballers selected by QPR for this festival of turning possession over under no pressure featured Simon Walton making his full debut at centre half in place of the suspended Damion Stewart. He was partnered at the back by Zesh Rehman with Barker and Malcolm wide of them in front of Camp. In midfield Leigertwood and Bolder started in the middle, Ainsworth and Rowlands on the wings, up front Rowan Vine led the line with Akos Buzsaky just behind him. Buzsaky received a good reception from the Plymouth fans before and after the match but was playfully booed and jeered during it.

Plymouth made three changes to their line up before the match. Despite a goal at Crystal Palace last week Jermaine Easter was replaced by Sylvain Ebanks Blake while full back Paul Connolly and midfielder Lilian Nalis returned from suspension in place of Gosling and Sawyer.

The first chance of the game came inside the opening ten minutes after a barnstorming run by the much sought after David Norris. He picked the ball up on halfway wide right after Connolly had robbed Rowlands and set off for the penalty area at speed. Chris Barker seemed desperate to show him outside down the wing and onto his right foot but he kept cutting inside as the run went on and with Barker slow to react to this Norris was afforded a free shot on Camp's goal from 15 yards out but he fired narrowly wide of the far post.

On ten minutes Hayles was narrowly beaten to a through ball by Camp after Ebanks Blake had dummied Halmosi's cross.

Rangers took the lead after 20 minutes with their first serious attack. Akos Buzsaky sent a sumptuous pass out to the QPR left flank and after Connolly slipped over trying to intercept it Rowlands was in behind the back four and racing in on goal. He hammered a low ball across the face of goal to Ainsworth who looked all set to score himself but the final touch into the net was by Vine, his fourth goal in 17 matches since arriving from Birmingham.

Buzsaky's next action in the game saw him receive a yellow card. A ball broke loose towards Connolly wide on the QPR left and Buzsaky ran the ball down, trying to control it with a raised boot that caught Connolly. The card was already in referee Steve Bratt's hand before he'd even reached the scene of the incident and hoisted it high and proud pointing to several other indiscretions he believed Buzsaky had committed to this point - either that or he was pointing to the various places Timar had kicked his former team mate in the opening 25 minutes that he's allow to continue, it wasn't clear.

From the free kick Halmosi sent a terrific cross over and Nalis met it powerfully from eight yards, his header was kept out skilfully by Lee Camp with a leg save down in the bottom corner. Halmosi showed the other side of his game moments later when he fell ridiculously under no contact from Bob Macolm whatsoever, infact Malcolm was two yards away when he went over. Bratt chose not to produce a yellow card for this, or when he repeated the trick in the second half.

At the start of the second half Halmosi proved to be the thorn in the QPR side again, skipping into the area and firing the ball across goal only to see it blocked by Simon Walton. The home fans and players appealed as one for handball but after initially looking like he pointed to his chest Mr Bratt pointed to the spot after some half an hour of deliberation. Sylvain Ebanks Blake stepped up and slammed the spot kick past Lee Camp who guessed the right way but stood little chance of saving such a well struck shot. Memo to the tannoy announcer - that thing in your hand is a microphone, it negates the need to shout.

Then, as the half progressed, it became more and more about our referee, determined to ruin the match with a series of crazy decisions and bookings. For a start Simon Walton climbed over the back of Ebanks Blake to win a header, a clear foul but Bratt rightly waved the advantage on and Plymouth developed the attack further down their right side. Blake and Walton squared up when they stood up but there was no need to stop play and yet the whistle was blown and both players were booked, Plymouth then restarted play with a free kick. This was a ridiculous piece of refereeing, neither player deserved a booking, there was no need for play to be stopped and after playing on for a good 30 seconds before stopping the play should we really have come all the way back for a Plymouth free kick? Things only got more bizarre when play was randomly stopped mid flow, QPR awarded a free kick and Nalis shown a yellow card. As Nalis hadn't made a challenge of any kind, or gone particularly close to the passage of play, this one was a mystery.

I have to say apart from that Nalis was very, very impressive in the middle of the midfield and just the kind of player we need - somebody to demand the ball, keep the midfield strong, and deny opponents easy possession.

Both managers sprung into action between the 60 and 70 minute marks. Buzsaky had been treated to some rough treatment from his former team mates and he left the field to be replaced by Dexter Blackstock. Marc Nygaard also came on for Martin Rowlands and that saw Vine move back to the wide left position he'd been very effective in last week against Colchester. Plymouth for their part sent on Easter for Hayles, who'd been his usual aggressive, nasty and highly effective self, and Lee Martin for Jimmy Abdou - Rangers fans have less than fond memories of Martin from his time with Stoke of course.

Seip went close at the back post from a corner and another set piece from Halmosi flew terrifyingly across the face of goal and out the other side without receiving a touch. These were warning shots for what was to come.

The flurry of subs seemed to have done QPR more good than the home time though. They forced three or four corners as time ticked down and made great progress down the left flank - actually keeping the ball on a couple of occasions for the first time in more than an hour. Five minutes from time, from an outswinging corner taken by Ainsworth, Dexter Blackstock thought he'd scored the winner with a powerful downward header but Larrieu got down well and stopped the ball with both hands. Rangers sadly had nobody in the six yard box looking to poach any rebounds and Plymouth were able to scramble the loose ball away.

At the other end Jermaine Easter was left totally unmarked in the middle of the penalty box from a Halmosi cross but his header was poor and Camp gathered.

Barker almost conceded a second penalty when he failed to control a ball with his foot and instead decided to palm it away with his hand but Mr Bratt signalled chest again and stuck to his guns this time. I actually thought this was more of a penalty than the one he'd given earlier but competence and consistency clearly isn't a strong point of this official. This was Barker's worst game for some time and the penalty appeal came after he'd incredibly been penalised for two foul throws and slightly before he cost us the match with a dire piece of defending.

It all started when Rangers were awarded a free kick they didn't want halfway through the four minutes of advertised stoppage time. Dexter Blackstock was fouled on halfway but the ball was carried away into the Plymouth half by Mikele Leigertwood and suddenly a great break looked on. Bratt actually looked for the advantage and then when there was one brought it back anyway. Frustrated, QPR launched the ball forward into the area where Dexter Blackstock hit the deck under pressure from Timar. QPR appealed and, incredibly, Bratt put the whistle in his mouth, a penalty awaited it seemed and a chance to win the game but after another age to make the decision he awarded the free kick against Blackstock. Presumably for being fouled too well. Frustrated Mikele Leigertwood flew into a tackle on halfway and was booked and when Plymouth launched their stoppage time free kick into the area they made no mistake.

The ball was allowed to drop and then poorly cleared by Barker who ended up conceding a corner when he had ample opportunity to hoist it into the side stand. Halmosi sent another wicked delivery in and chaos ensued. The ball was cleared from the line, then bounced back off the cross bar, then fell to Ebanks Blake who fired an unstoppable drive into the roof of the net.

The final whistle sounded a short time later and, as he had been for the previous ninety minutes, the referee again put himself at the centre of attention, flashing a red card at Mikele Leigertwood who'd obviously said far too much of what everybody else was thinking. Rarely is a referee so bad that both managers are exasperated with him and both sets of fans are abusing him. He was quite frankly incredible and should be packed back off to Sunday League to learn the game over again.

There are other ways to control players than booking them. He should get along to Mark Halsey's next game and watch how man management works. He actually made matters worse by frustrating the players with abysmal decisions and a 'book now ask questions later' attitude to dealing with offenders. It was like watching the bastard love child of Trevor Kettle and Rob Styles at work.

Useless though he was, I can't go along with De Canio blaming him for the defeat. There were positives again, but the overriding problem we have is the inability to keep hold of the ball. The defence wasn't too bad overall - Malcolm was pretty solid, Rehman made one mistake in the first half when he allowed a ball to bounce and got it pinched off his toe by Blake, but he made a decent enough recovery. Walton was impressive, leading the back line well and at least trying to keep them pushed up and organised. Barker was God awful, regressing back to how he played at the start of the season.

But however well they played individually collectively they were all guilty of giving the ball away too often. Once we'd taken the lead the midfield disappeared and balls were hoofed back to Plymouth time after time. We don't keep the ball from goal kicks, throw ins, free kicks or in open play. You cannot defend for any length of time when all you're doing is passing the ball straight back to your opponent every time you get it. We must have somebody in that defence and the midfield who commands possession of the ball and is then capable of passing it wide to his team mates.

Walton looked capable of doing that at the back and I hope he keeps his place alongside Stewart at Watford on Saturday and Rehman is dropped for the Jamaican - nothing against Rehman who's played reasonably well in the last month but he's not good enough, or quick enough, for this level and I was reasonably impressed with Walton.

Another thing we must do is work on the defending of corners and free kicks. Plymouth threatened us the most when Halmosi was swinging the ball in and while he is undoubtedly very, very good at that we still didn't seem well organised. My vantage point in the away end gave me a close up look at how we set ourselves up for these and the fact that for three corners from the same side we had men on both posts, a man on one post and then no men on the posts at all suggest a rather haphazard and off the cuff attitude to dealing with set pieces. Surely everybody has their job and if their job is to stand on the post that's what they do, if nobody has that job then nobody does it, seems strange to have them there sometimes and not others to me.

Plenty to work on ahead of Watford on Saturday then. This looked the easier game of these two festive fixtures to me at the start of the week because of Watford's awful recent home form and I hope I'm right. We must keep ourselves in the midst of this tight situation at the bottom so we can quickly move up the table if we improve with the new signings - it's hard to see how they can be any worse than the players we're putting out there now. At one stage yesterday we were actually 17th but now we're back in the bottom three.

That situation suits us at the moment because in my opinion the team we have is not good enough to stay in this league. It's impossible to judge De Canio with this lot because they are doing what they can within the limitations of their ability. If we're going to strengthen in January then keeping in touch with the teams above us is the best we can hope for in the meantime.

Plymouth: Larrieu 6, Connolly 6, Timar 7, Seip 6, Hodges 6, Norris 7, Abdou 6 (Martin 74, 6), Nalis 8, Halmosi 8, Hayles 7 (Easter 73, 6), Ebanks-Blake 8
Subs Not Used: Fallon, Sawyer, Gosling
Booked: Ebanks-Blake (nothing very much), Nalis (God only knows), Easter (foul)
Goals: Ebanks-Blake 50 pen (assisted Halmosi), 90 (assisted Halmosi)

QPR: Camp 6, Malcolm 6, Walton 7, Rehman 6, Barker 3, Rowlands 5 (Nygaard 68, 6), Leigertwood 6, Bolder 5, Buzsaky 6 (Blackstock 78, 6), Vine 6, Ainsworth 5
Subs Not Used: Cole, Moore, Kanyuka
Booked: Buzsaky (repetitive fouling apparantly), Rowlands (foul), Ainsworth (foul), Walton (nothing very much), Bolder (foul), Nygaard (God only knows) Leigertwood (foul)

Sent off Leigertwood (saying what we all thought)
Goals: Vine 20 (assisted Rowlands)

QPR Star Man - Simon Walton 7 - Hard to pick a star man in a mediocre performance but I was impressed with Walton's defending, particularly his ability in the air. He also seemed to be making an effort to organise and lead the defence which stopped us dropping quite so deep. I'd hope he starts with Stewart on Saturday at Watford but we must not expect too much as he continues to work his way back to full fitness.

Referee: Steve Bratt (W Midlands) 1 Oooooooh somebody got a new whistle for Christmas didn't they? And my God he was determined to use it. Steve every tackle is not a foul - sometimes players tackle each other fairly and at that point there is no need for a whistle. There is also no need for a whistle every time two players jump and challenge for a ball in the air, this isn't five a side we are allowed to go for a ball over head height. Every time you blow your whistle there is no need to book somebody, we won't think any less of you if you leave that bloody card in your pocket once in a while. You don't get any kind of bonus for getting the card out really quickly either, try replacing it in your pocket every now and again rather than walking around with it in your hand and hoisting it every three seconds. Give yourself some time to think about the decision before booking somebody - maybe allow the fouled player to hit the deck and come to a complete stop before booking somebody for instance? Finally just give it up, give the bloody game up. A great many people gave up a great deal of time and money at Christmas to go to that bloody game yesterday and they didn't do it to watch some crazed lunatic racing around the pitch desperate to be the centre of attention. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

Attendance: 16,502 (700 QPR fans approx) A fantastic atmosphere inside Home Park with the home fans in good voice and QPR travelling in creditable numbers. Some right weirdoes sitting close to the away end I have to say - some of the foul mouthed yobs sitting immediately to the right of the away end looked like Gareth from The Office during a session of colonic irrigation. Still the best atmosphere I've experienced at a match for a few weeks and more enjoyable than the referee dominated match.

Photo: Action Images

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