Rangers kept their fading hopes of retaining the Scottish Premier League title alive with a clinical 2-0 win at Dundee on Sunday.
Goals from Portuguese midfielder Nuno Capucho and left-back Michael Ball ensured a comfortable outing for Alex McLeish’s side.
The three points mean Rangers will go into next Saturday’s Old Firm showdown with unbeaten league leaders Celtic eight points behind their oldest rivals.
The bookmakers have already promised to start paying out to punters who backed Celtic for the title if they win that match.
Rangers visit to Dundee had been shrouded in controversy with the Dens Park outfit accusing the Glasgow giants of behaving like vultures in their attempts to sign Scotland midfielder Gavin Rae at a cut-price £125 000.
Rae is being offloaded to help Dundee, who were placed in administration last month, avoid financial collapse and took no part in Sunday’s match.
Without him, Dundee lacked their customary bite in midfield and Capucho and Ball’s first-half strikes allowed Rangers to preserve their energy for next weekend’s crunch at Parkhead.
David Mackay’s alertness prevented Peter Lovenkrands from opening the scoring in the third minute after the Dane had made rapid progress from the left flank to reach the box via a one-two with the recalled Capucho.
The resulting shot past goalkeeper Julian Speroni was goal-bound but not pacy enough to prevent the young defender from hacking away before it could reach the line.
There was no such reprieve for the home side three minutes later when Chris Burke swung in a cross from the right for Capucho to head home unchallenged from six yards.
Dundee rallied swiftly, though, and captain Barry Smith operated a shoot-on-sight policy that forced three first-half saves out of Stefan Klos in the Rangers goal, with the middle effort taxing the German the most.
Nacho Novo, who had received the ball near the halfway line, motored past Craig Moore with ease to go one-on-one with Klos, but once again he came off best.
Rangers doubled their lead in the 35th minute. Mikel Arteta had been tripped 22m from goal, but the usual set-piece expert left the free-kick to Ball.
It proved to be a good decision as his delivery ended up in the back of the net, possibly off the head of Lee Wilkie.
Dundee tried again for the instant response, but although Lee Mair’s rasping drive at last had the beating of Klos, it cannoned back off the goalkeeper’s left-hand post.
Lovenkrands rattled the same goal frame a couple of minutes after the restart after Arteta had sent him away down the left, with Speroni beaten at his near post.
The second half proved to be less incident-packed than the first 45 minutes, but that was to Rangers’ liking. Rookie striker Bobby Linn did get one close-range chance, but could not hit the target on the turn from a tight angle, and another period of pressure saw Garry Brady fire over, horribly wide and then against a defender.
Speroni saved his side from a heavier defeat at the death with a fine point-blank save from Paolo Vanoli, who had come on for Lovenkrands. — Sapa-AFP