A Hand-y three points

This afternoon Neil Warnock took his unbeaten Rangers' team to former employers Crystal Palace as we looked to see if the incredible start to the season would continue into the International break and resume in two weeks time still six points clear at the very least.

The Lofty Heights crew took two cars to the game as PK was on call for the day, so Lofty, Sam, Jenson and myself took to the road early doors as we looked to cross West London and head South. The sat nav gave us an unrealistic estimated journey time of just over half an hour from Northolt, which was our meeting point. A mere two hours later we finally arrived at Selhurst Park after being stuck in all sorts of roadworks, anyhow when we got parked up we went on to meet Iceman at the Tasty Jerk hut on Whitehorse Lane and tucked into our food before being joined by Nik, Luke and Matt. As we were sat on the wall Sam's heart skipped a beat as Fitz Hall, joined by Bradley Orr and Peter Ramage, walked past us and went into the Tasty Jerk, her day was made before the game had already started!

Once again Neil Warnock named an unchanged side and it was time to cheer on the R's.

Today also saw the debut of Lofty Heights on Twitter, Lofty was on hand to tweet throughout the game, if you feel like following us on twitter for game updates then our username is LoftyHeights70.

Palace made a bright start and soon had Rangers' hearts in their mouths as an effort smashed against the post and was eventually cleared to safety after a scramble.
Rangers' were looking comfortable on the ball but once again Palace broke clear and Zaha saw Paddy Kenny in fine form as he produced a fine double save to keep the scores level at 0-0.
This seemed to wake the R's up and we went on the attack and went a Taarabt shot was parried into the path of Mackie and was about to seemingly put the R's one up but Speroni done fantastically well to spread himself out and thwart the newly called up Scottish International.
Rangers' continued to put the pressure on Palace but were unable to create any clear cut chances and when balls were being played into the box Speroni was on his toes to put a last minute finger onto balls and deny Rangers' of the opportunity to break the deadlock.
Just before half time Palace nearly grabbed an opener when Bennett's header was cleared off the line by Hogan Ephraim.

At half time the queues getting onto the concourse were ridiculously long so we remained in our seats throughout the duration of the break. I did however manage to catch John for a quick chat and who I can only describe as beautiful, Jess Peters, quickly said hello before she went back to her seat.

The second half whistle blew and we were off once again.
Fives minutes into the half the opening goal was greeted by a very lively Rangers' travelling support.
Edgar Davids, who was having a good game up until this, attempted to pass back to Speroni but found his pass short on pace and Jamie Mackie's lightning quick reactions meant he got to the ball before Speroni, rounded him and then had to negotiate two Palace defenders, instead of going for goal himself he rolled the ball over to Taarabt, who found the back of the net with a simple tap in. Great goal and very unselfish play by Mackie. Taarabt signalled that the plaudits should go to Mackie after all the hard work he put in.
Soon after it could've been 2-0. Taarabt's corner was met by Helguson and the Icelander headed just wide of goal.
Palace then started to enjoy their best spell of the match and put the Rangers' goal under a load of pressure and on 89 minutes they got the goal that, if I'm honest, had been coming.
Zaha, who was lively throughout the second half, broke down the right hand side and his cross found the unmarked Cadogan and he slotted home to level things up and seemingly grab the home side a point.
However the game wasn't settled and once again it was a late injury time that settled things.
Smith broke down the left hand side and floated a cross in the middle, Helguson jumped with Speroni and got a touch ahead of the Palace 'keeper and the ball slowly dropped into the back of the net and once again the Rangers' faithful were going mental! There was suspicion of a foul on the 'keeper but after seeing the ref ignore the protests we allowed ourselves to go crazy!

Well once again Rangers' pulled it out of the bag and we are celebrating an injury time goal that may count for a lot come the end of the season. Rangers' had plenty of chances to win the game over the course of the game and maybe edged it but with Palace hitting the post and having a very good spell in the second half then maybe they did deserve something from the game.

Lofty's Man of the Match goes to Kyle Walker today for a menacing performance down the right flank, constantly running at people and causing all sorts of problems. He's so calm when defending also and gets in all the right positions, lets hope that his loan is extended over the international break. Other contenders today include Shaun Derry and Heidar Helguson.

Crystal Palace: Julian Speroni, Nathaniel Clyne, Patrick McCarthy, Owen Garvan, Andrew Dorman (Calvin Andrew 79), Wilfried Zaha, Julian Bennett, Edgar Davids (Anthony Gardner 59), Kieran Djilali, Alex Marrow, Pablo Counago (Kieron Cadogan 46).

Subs: Lewis Price, Charlie Holness, Alassane N'Diaye, Stuart O'Keefe.

Goals: Cadogan (89)

Bookings: Dorman (40), Speroni (90)

QPR: Paddy Kenny, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry, Adel Taarabt (Tommy Smith 72), Heidar Helguson, Akos Buzsaky (Mikele Leigertwood 83), Jamie Mackie, Kaspars Gorkss, Kyle Walker, Matt Connolly, Hogan Ephraim.

Subs: Radek Cerny, Martin Rowlands, Patrick Agyemang, Gary Borrowdale, Antonio German.

Goals: Taarabt (49), Helguson (90)

Bookings: Ephraim (18), Hill (66)

Referee: Mr K Friend

Attendance: 17, 171 (3342)

The journey home should have been an enjoyable one but as there was a collapsed lamp post that caused the closure of the Hammersmith flyover meant that driving from South to West London took us over THREE HOURS!!! Many thanks to Lofty for getting us back safely after spending all the time stood still in traffic!