With the weather forcing the postponement of Southend and Colchester's respective Under-18 fixtures, it was left to Gallen's side to contest top spot in the Puma Youth Alliance League with third placed Gillingham on Saturday morning.

The R's began the day two points clear of their opponents, but were soon up against it, conceding two goals in a first half totally dominated by the Gills.

Rangers' plight wasn't helped by the sending off of winger Chris Arthur on 35 minutes for a retaliatory kick at a Gills defender, after he had been fouled twice in a short space of time - neither of which incident was apparently spotted by the officials.

Undeterred, James Folkes reduced the arrears shortly into the second half with his sixth goal of the campaign.

Goalscorer James Folkes

Buoyed by their reprieve, Rangers were unlucky not to equalise when efforts from Danny Maguire and Andrew Howell hit the woodwork, with the Gills custodian well beaten on both occasions.

Rangers' ten men continued to dominate the play and Gillingham were reduced to playing on the counter attack, desperately hanging on to their slender one goal advantage.

Eventually the R's gallant efforts saw them run out of steam and as the clock ticked towards full-time, Gillingham grabbed a fortuitous third to snatch all three points and top spot in the table.

Speaking to www.qpr.co.uk, Gallen praised his side, commenting: "If there is a right way to lose a game then that's what we did.

"Gillingham were terrific in the first half - the best any team has performed against us all season - and they thoroughly deserved to be two up at half-time. However, we had a right go at them in the second half and even with ten men were far and away the better of the two teams.

Chris Arthur

"Chris was unlucky to be sent off; he was fouled twice and I couldn't believe the referee didn't give a free-kick in his favour - all he saw was Chris's frustration afterwards. It wasn't nasty and maybe a yellow card and a good talking too would have sufficed.

"This was the best game we have played in all year and probably under the circumstances a draw would have been a fair result, but we just ran out of legs at the end and they punished us.''

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