Celtic and Rangers yesterday produced the one Old Firm result that is guaranteed to please absolutely no one.

Though this was a pleasing enough match in front of a crowd just short of 60,000, the whole point of these vexed proceedings is to deliver a knockout blow that devastates one side until hostilities recommence later in the season. With goals from Mark Viduka and Billy Dodds cancelling each other out, that never happened.

The Rangers fans left Celtic Park slightly happier, entering the three-week mid-winter break with a four-point lead in the Scottish Premier League and a game in hand. That advantage is considerable, if far from decisive with two more Old Firm matches to come. But they will occupy pole position into the new millennium, which will be a source of some satisfaction.

Celtic at least did not suffer the defeat that would probably have left them inconsolable and the infant coaching career of John Barnes under scrutiny during the shutdown. Furthermore they had every cause to claim the moral victory: they had hit the woodwork three times and, in the early stages, had looked considerably the better balanced side.

Led inspirationally by Paul Lambert, they could have won there and then. Instead Rangers kept plugging away and their resolution carried them through. They looked stronger the longer the contest lasted, which may be a foretaste of what will unfold between now and April.

That start by Celtic may have owed much to the bedlam about the place in the minutes before kick-off. They might have scored a wonderful opening goal in the ninth minute when Viduka worked a pass with Lambert and closed in. He clipped the ball brilliantly off the outside of his right foot to curl the ball round Lionel Charbonnier but the shot struck the post.

Nine minutes later they were in front, with the Australian striker in business again. Eyal Berkovic, out on the left, hit a well-timed diagonal ball through the defence and Viduka, running on to it, placed his shot with telling accuracy into the bottom corner of the net. With Lubomir Moravcik crashing a volley against the bar, the traffic was all one-way for the first quarter.

Rangers looked sullen rather than shocked but three minutes later they equalised rather elegantly. There did not seem much danger as Tony Vidmar slipped the ball forward to the edge of the penalty area, but Dodds sprinted forward to win it and struck a shot which went under the body of Jonathan Gould in goal.

There had been much of merit in that first half but the quality could not last. And for once, under the firm guidance of the referee Hugh Dallas, there was not much niggling either. In the 65th minute a Jackie McNamara cross was headed on to the bar by Moravcik to re-emphasise that the breaks were not going Celtic's way.

After that there was only a rash of substitutions and ritual bookings before Dallas called a halt and the crowd drifted away. The Rangers support can at least look at the league table this morning with satisfaction, but their rivals gave enough notice that the championship will not be retained without a fight.

Celtic: Gould, McNamara, Petrov (Blinker 73), Mjallby, Stubbs, Tebily, Riseth, Lambert, Berkovic (Wright 83), Viduka, Moravcik. Subs Not Used: Kerr, Burchill, Boyd. Booked: Moravcik, Lambert. Goals: Viduka 18.

Rangers: Charbonnier, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Wallace (Amato 88), Albertz, Reyna, Vidmar, Dodds. Subs Not Used: Myhre, Kanchelskis, McCann, Nicholson. Booked: Amoruso, Moore, Numan. Goals: Dodds 27.

Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).