Quality football was scarce, non-existent would be more appropriate. This was a battle in which The Bluebirds struggled for long periods.

QPR came with a simple game plan. Be physical. Out-muscle City. Route One football. Waste time whenever they had the chance. Unfortunately, on the night, it got them some success.

Cardiff, for their part, will probably look back in the game with mixed feelings. The game had ebbs and flows, twists and turns, it was tense rather than exciting. A poor first half but with chances wasted, a silly goal conceded, they allowed themselves to be out-battled but followed it with a fighting second half and kept going even though they were tiring.

City named an unchanged team from he side that defeated Northampton at the weekend although, without doubt, they would have loved to start with different personnel with nearly half the side missing. The quality and composure of Graham Kavanagh and Jason Bowen was sorely missed, the pace of Earnie would have made a difference, Mark Bonner would have assisted midfield, Des Hamilton could be preferable to Josh Low at right wing back but none were available so City had to make use of what they had.

In front of a big 13,425 crowd stirring up a great atmosphere, City started confidently. QPR like a rugby team dressed in Barbarian-style black and white hooped shirts with black shorts. They played like a rugby team too with long punts forward, high up and unders and players packing the areas near where balls fell.

In the early stages, Peter Throne headed over but Andy Campbell had already ran the ball out of play. Andy Legg, placed in space on the left but caught in two minds whether to shoot or cross wasted a break with City men overlapping to support. QPR's first break in response saw Pacquette hit a cross over the Grange End and out of the stadium. Nice one!

Then, on 10 minutes, complete disaster. Paul Brayson attacking overhit and lost the ball. Shittu (a man mountain in QPR's defence - his shirt looked like it still had coat hangers in it) belted a ball 60 yards which fell over everyone and City were caught asleep. Pacquette was first to react, Scott Young couldn't catch him, and, criminally, Neil Alexander, failed to come out of goal as PACQUETTE bore down from 30 yards out leaving him the whole goal to aim at and the routine task of steEring the ball wide of him into the far corner. Poor defending, poor goalkeeping.

Shittu was solid at the back but his 50 yard smashes upfield typified QPR's performance style. Shittu also hit many poor balls and passes which seemed to justify his name at times too.

Andy Campbell then wasted precious and guilt edged chances, which made you wonder if he was Premier quality as he could have had a first-half hat-trick. Andy Legg crossed, Thorne headed on but Campbell snatched at a clear sight of goal from close range and put wide when the QPR keeper had given up any hope of saving. Moments later, Paul Brayson broke clear from halfway and gave Campbell a one on one chance with the keeper when he could have shot himself. Campbell totally messed it up again bu putting a weak effort straight to Evans to collect with ease.

Back came QPR, Pacquette heading wide, this time Alexander gave up any hope of saving an effort on goal. Pacquette then missed another guilt edged chance when a simple ball was played behind City's defence who went statuesque but he placed his shot inches wide when a goal looked inevitable.

So much for the chances, then there were the annoying aspects, plenty of them too. Cardiff struggled to put any decent football together and seemed to be second best to most loose balls. The half must have broken the record for the number of head injuries, I think the game was stopped on 5 occasions for them.

Cardiff showed their bottle, character and battling qualities again but, for a team hoping to go to Division One, we were again found wanting for quality, composure and class. The essentials that would have made the difference.

Josh Low was probably the worst culprit - on reflection, there was no probably about it, he was the worst culprit. After showing signs of coming back to form recently, he went backwards. Yes, he made those 40 yard runs but not once did he cross well, d only once did he pass to another blue shirt when it mattered, his one good chance to shoot was blazed over.

But others will not have been happy with their game too, communication was poor and the number of times 2 City players went for the same ball was worrying..

Most of all, City never competed in QPR's area for aerial ball. Some credit for that must go to QPR's third choice keeper, an England Under-21 international, Evans, who dominated things and stayed calm. City wasted Legg's long throws which Evans took every time.

The officials were worse than useless. They were bad for both teams but City fared worse. None of them seemed aware of any rule changes within the last 10 years. The referee (George Cain of Bootle) didn't ask players to leave the field after injury stoppages, not such a bad thing in my view but that's what should be done. They allowed QPR ridiculous amounts of time wasting. The linesman infuriated City on 3 or 4 occasions as Brayson, Boland or Thorne broke clear but offside was given against players (usually Campbell) running back but not interfering. Very poor decisions.

QPR knew they could get away with being physical with such inadequate officiating, it was up to City to fight fire with fire but we allowed ourselves to be second best at that. Cain took over 40 minutes to book anyone, Pacquette, for a poor challenge on Scott Young. In other games, where teams are purposely being physical preventing football being played, you could have expected to have seen it brandished 4 or 5 times.

Before half-time, City lost Rhys Weston after another bad challenge. He seemed to be suffering with concussion, Spencer Prior replaced him. Five minutes were added on, it could have been double that. City looked like they could turn this game around as they were the footballing team, even if they were way below their best, but they needed half-time more than QPR to sort themselves out.

H/T: CARDIFF CITY 0 QPR 1

Lennie Lawrence has already proved he is considerably more tactically astute than his predecessor, Cork, and is never afraid to change things. As City came back for the 2nd half, Leo was on, Brayson was off. This was a clash far more suited to Leo, Peter Thorne dropped back behind Leo and Campbell.

The change, and half-time break has impact, as City came out with sleeves rolled up and got stuck in, finally competing physically with QPR and not allowing themselves to be bullied so much.

Leo started roughing up QPR defenders just as their players had been doing to City. It took him all of 2 minutes before the referee spoke to him but he did really well and was a key feature in City's fight back.

With so many challenges being allowed to pass by Cain of Bootle (Leo was smashed off the ball, QPR won possession but the ref thought Cardiff had advantage so allowed play to continue at one stage!), the match was like Rollerball than football at times.

The equaliser came less than 10 seconds after I said to the guy sitting next to me that "if City score tonight, it'll be the scrappiest goal of the season". The words could not have been more apt.

Leggy tried another long throw. For once, the keeper didn't come and collect, it bounced up off Peter Thorne's body without him knowing much about it and SCOTT YOUNG nodded home a vital goal on the hour into virtually an unguarded net from 5 yards.

You hoped City would know put QPR under the cosh and swarm to victory but, apart from a Leo snapshot well saved, it was evident that a couple of our players were knackered. Andy Campbell was struggling, Andy Legg was becoming very tired with socks slipped own and he tucked in more to stop him charging up and down the wing, Layton Maxwell was struggling too but gave it 120% eventually winning City man of the match. Josh Low's game deteriorated and City had real problems. Lennie had 1 sub left but no real options to help City press on with Walton, Simpkins and James Collins on the bench.

QPR suddenly found space on the break and nearly scored, both times from Pacquette again, who firstly brought a great stop from Alexander from a 20 yard volley then he headed wide when he should have hit the target.

Suddenly, Cain decided to lose all control over the game. After he let several bad challenges go, he suddenly decided to show he knew what a yellow card was about and he rightly booked Shittu for bringing down Campbell on the break.

From that free-kick and move, Andy Campbell was clearly brought down inside the area with Cain standing 5 yards away behind play. So what did he award? A free-kick 2 yards outside the area. Campbell couldn't believe it and showed his disgust at more unacceptable officiating, rightly so too.

Just after that, Pacquette grabbed and then brought down Gabbidon, it looked nothing more severe than a free-kick. Cain decided otherwise, brandished a 2nd yellow card then sent off Pacquette. It was not as bad as 10 or more previous infringements that he let go without even awarding a free-kick, it was a foul but I would have been very aggrieved if it was a Cardiff player dismissed like that.

The drama switched off the field as the QPR bench lost it. Ian Holloway, more hyper-active than a British skiing Olympian before and after a drugs test displayed the sort of lost temper and ill discipline that he would probably fine his players for. He turned on the 4th official, Lennie Lawrence, a steward and anyone near him until the 4th official notified the referee and he was sent off too.

The bench antics hadn't finished as Holloway then seemed to clash with the female steward who always stands at the front of the tunnel and then, a bottle, apparently thrown from the bench, hit her. The steward now seemed livid. Extra security were despatched to the tunnel and 3 riot police too!! Drama, drama, drama - very little of it was football though. Why can't they behave as well as the fans do?

As usually happens, 11 versus 10 is an even contest and City didn't really create anything in the remaining time. QPR however really should have won when the pint sized Gallen (Gallen - pint size - geddit? hec, the game got to me!) broke and found Rose clear through the middle. Again Alexander hesitated before running out so Rose was able to pick his spot from 20 yards out. To the relief of all bar 250 in the 13,400 crowd and in keeping with the skill and quality content of this match, that spot was over the bar into the Family Stand - a terrible mess and amazing let off.

It this result does one thing, it'll stop Lennie Lawrence, Keith Cooper and Co stupidly remarking Cardiff City can claim the 2nd automatic promotion spot. We are now 9 points behind with 9 games to play, it won't happen, forget it. It'll be hard enough getting into the Top 6 play-offs and this delusion must stop.

Other results weren't too bad, we neither caught up teams or fell behind in the play-off race, the draw favoured Cardiff more than QPR who remain 3 points behind City with a worse goal difference having played a game more so it's hard to see us getting overhauled by teams below. We've just got to make up that gap between 8th (where we are) and 6th minimum (where we need to be).

Blackpool at home this weekend is a 'must win', nothing else will suffice. Being positive, Kavanagh will be back and, hopefully, so will Bowen. Bonner and Earnie may be getting close too. We will get stronger, let's hope we take the chances but it's undoubtedly going to remain tense for the next 7 weeks, it looks more likely that our play-off race will go right to the final weekend of the regular season.