Queens Park Rangers 1 Tranmere Rovers 1

Last updated : 27 October 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Tranmere rode their luck to leave West London with a point following a hard earned 1-1 draw against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

Brian Little's side took an early lead through Simon Haworth, but had to defend for most of the rest of the game, especially after Kevin Gallen's equaliser two minutes after half time.

Tranmere made the perfect start going ahead after just four minutes when Gary Jones' back heel wrong footed the Rangers defence and Haworth took the ball beyond goalkeeper Chris Day and into the corner of the net.

Rangers went close when Gallen headed Gino Padula's cross wide and Padula's resultant corner was headed onto the post by Tony Thorpe.

Rovers' lead was wiped out soon after the break. Thorpe set up Gallen, who calmly found the net from close range.

Gallen should have scored again on 64 minutes. Thorpe sneaked in front of Graham Allen and his shot was saved by keeper John Achterberg. The ball rebounded to Gallen, who looked certain to put his team ahead only for Allen to atone for his mistake by clearing off the line.

Eugene Dadi and Iain Hume brought good saves from Rangers keeper Chris Day but it was the home team that looked more likely to find a winner.

It didn't arrive though. An unmarked Thorpe headed wide from Padula's corner, Martin Rowlands sent a left footed curler just wide and, in stoppage time, Marc Bircham's overhead kick also went wide.

Little admitted: "After the equaliser you only thought the game could go one way and that was that they would win it, so I am delighted with the point.

"If you would have told me before kick off we'd have got a point, I would have been delighted. QPR are a decent side and we did our best to frustrate them.

"We worked hard off the ball although I have to say that at times we didn't work as hard as we could have done when we actually had the ball."