diff --git a/phpBB/includes/functions_template.php b/phpBB/includes/functions_template.php
index 7f29c2a040..4fecd0737e 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/functions_template.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/functions_template.php
@@ -103,14 +103,15 @@ class template_compile
 
 			if (!function_exists('token_get_all'))
 			{
+				// This matches the information gathered from the internal PHP lexer
 				$match = array(
-					'\\?php[\n\r\s\t]+',
-					'[\\?%]=',
-					'[\\?%][^\w]',
-					'script[\n\r\s\t]+language[\n\r\s\t]*=[\n\r\s\t]*[\'"]php[\'"]'
+					'#<\?.*?\?>#s',
+					'#<[%?]=.*?\?>#s',
+					'#<script\s+language\s*=\s*(["\']?)php\1\s*>.*?</script\s*>#s',
+					'#<\?php(?:\r\n?|[ \n\t]).*?\?>#s'
 				);
 
-				$code = preg_replace('#<(' . implode('|', $match) . ')#is', '&lt;$1', $code);
+				$code = preg_replace($match, '', $code);
 				return;
 			}
 		}
@@ -169,12 +170,6 @@ class template_compile
 		// php is a no-no. There is a potential issue here in that non-php
 		// content may be removed ... however designers should use entities
 		// if they wish to display < and >
-/*
-		$match_php_tags = array('#\<\?php.*?\?\>#is', '#<[^\w<]*(script)(((?:"[^"]*"|\'[^\']*\'|[^<>\'"])+)?(language[^<>\'"]+("[^"]*php[^"]*"|\'[^\']*php[^\']*\'))((?:"[^"]*"|\'[^\']*\'|[^<>\'"])+)?)?>.*?</script>#is', '#\<\?.*?\?\>#s', '#\<%.*?%\>#s');
-		$code = preg_replace($match_php_tags, '', $code);
-*/
-
-		// An alternative to the above would be calling this function which would be the ultimate solution but also has its drawbacks.
 		$this->remove_php_tags($code);
 
 		// Pull out all block/statement level elements and seperate plain text