Rangers go four points clear

Dundee 0 Rangers 3

Dundee 0 Rangers 3

Rangers extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League to four points today after crushing 10-man Dundee 3-0 at Dens Park.

With Celtic not playing until tomorrow, Alex McLeish's men took the three points with goals from defender Robert Malcolm, Peter Lovenkrands and Australian centreback Craig Moore.

The home side, unbeaten in their previous four matches, had been unlucky not to take the lead before Malcolm's opener.

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But their resistance disintegrated after their Georgian international Zurab Khizanishvili was sent off for denying Ronald de Boer a goalscoring opportunity a minute before the break.

Dundee might have taken the lead after only two minutes when Giorgi Nemsadze sent Nacho Novo clear.

The Spaniard went round Rangers keeper Stefan Klos but his attempt to slot the ball home was frustrated by Craig Moore's lunging block.

There was another let-off for Rangers when Fabian Caballero hit a post with a cheeky back heel.

But it was Rangers who took the lead in the 30th minute when a Mikael Arteta corner found the head of Moore at the near post.

The Australian's header came back off the bar and after Michael Mols had attempted to get to the loose ball it fell perfectly for Malcolm to fire home right in front of goal.

Rangers failed to take advantage of the incident which resulted in Khizanishvili being sent off, Barry Ferguson sidefooting the free-kick wide.

But it only took five minutes of the second half for them to double their lead, Arteta's deflected cross falling perfectly for Lovenkrands to head home.

Moore, who was accompanied in the Rangers defence by his returning compatriot Kevin Muscat, rounded things off 11 minutes from the end with a trademark powerful header from a corner.

AFP