Furlong Rescues Point For R's

The Lions were leading 1-0 thanks to a cool finish from Barry Hayles in the 51^st minute when the veteran striker drilled home a fantastic right-footed equaliser with four minutes to go- his tenth league goal of the season.

Although Furlong will again take the plaudits for his all-round display it will be Millwall’s long-throw specialist Adrian Serioux who will be kicking himself this morning.

The Canadian was winding up to launch yet another monster throw-in too Rangers territory when he threw the ball straight into the face of Superhoop Lee Cook, earning the player a straight red card.

Millwall’s management pairing of Dennis Wise and Ray Wilkins were both stunned by the actions of the player which inadvertidly cost the Lions three points.

Rangers seized the initiative and began to bombard the Loft end with attack after attack.

R’s boss Ian Holloway then threw on attacking pair Tony Thorpe (fit again after injury) and former Everton youngster Kevin McLeod in the hope of recovering the deficit.

Georges Santos switched from centre-half to centre-forward as Ollie gambled for a share of the spoils.

They were inspired changes as the R’s began to dominate all over the field. The South Londoners were loosing their grip on the match and the R’s were growing in confidence.

Marc Bircham, the ex-Millwall midfielder was playing in his first match against his former club after leaving them for West London two years ago was taunted throughout the game for his blue and white dyed hair, and his Lion tattoo on his arm.

The self-confessed Rangers nut rose to the occasion and atmosphere, as the abuse seemed to pump extra adrenaline into the player, dubbed "the Robbie Savage of the Championship".

With the home support behind them, Rangers’ pressure increased but still they had no clear chances to score.

Millwall continued to carve out the best openings and Hayles, Jo Tessem and David Livermore were all guilty of hopeless misses.

Furlong made the visitors pay on 86 minutes when he netted for Rangers and the home side could have stolen all three points had McLeod done better from six yards out in stoppage time.

Ollie was most definitely the happier man after the match, realising his team had been second best.

"Millwall should have killed us off. They had the better of the match, and their system worked against us.

"I can't fault my players at all because they fought and Millwall let us back in the game.

"That's what happens in this league if you take your foot off the pedal." Said Holloway.

Speaking about the sending off which turned the tables, Ollie added,

"He turned what was a massive positive for them into a huge negative.

"I have never seen a throw like it. We got a man up there to try and deal with the throw, but their guy got himself sent off."

A new Ollyism from the Hoops boss was brushed off by an unhappy Lions assistant (Ray Wilkins) who agreed with the referee’s decision.

"It was a sending off. You can't throw the ball at people's faces," he said. "I think he probably got caught up in the hype of the game as it was a terrific atmosphere.

"He'll learn from that, he has only just come out of Canadian football. He is normally the most placid guy on the planet.

"We should have nicked it but that's the story of our season at the moment.

"We lost by a late goal on Saturday, and lost two points from another one here.

"We are not scoring enough goals, and it's getting to be a problem for us."

Also speaking after the match was Lee Cook, Rangers’ talented winger at the centre of the incident.

Cook said: "He meant to do it. The ball hit me in the eyes, the nose, mouth and cheeks. It took me a while to realise what he had done. At first I thought the linesman was having a go at me for jumping but he saw it and the referee made the right decision.

"Before the game we had discussed standing close to him at throw-ins. We knew he had a massive throw and it did cause us a few problems. Maybe he was getting the hump with us, I don't know."

Turning his attentions to the weekend’s clash at West Ham, Cookie ruled out a playoff push should the R’s pull off a stunning second victory over the Hammers on Saturday.

"We've now got two massive games coming up against West Ham and Wigan. If we can get something out of those it would be great.

"But it's too early to start talking about the play-offs. We will have to see how things look at Christmas."

The point means Rangers increase their home run to 6 games unbeaten despite dropping to fifth in the table. Wigan and Ipswich both won, the latter thrashing Sheffield United 5-1 at Portman Road.

Reading drew away at Plymouth 2-2 after falling two goals behind in the first half and West Ham were walloped 4-1 away at Cardiff.

Sunderland won 3-1 at home to Wolves to move above the R’s.