thrilling 3-2 win over Hearts at Ibrox this afternoon
while Celtic were dropping two points in a 2-2 draw at
Dundee.
It was a tense struggle in Govan, with the Light Blues
trailing to a controversial early penalty award until
the closing stages of the first-half.
Hearts were in fact unbeaten in their last three games
against Rangers - and must have fancied a continuation
of that run given their outstanding win in Basle, only
to be denied by a late Nacho Novo winner.
Manager Alex McLeish made two changes from Thursday
with Maurice Ross and Alex Rae replacing Gregory
Vignal and Bob Malcolm.
Rangers should have opened the scoring in the first
minute - a Peter Lovenkrands cross finding Dado Prso
at the back post, only for the Croatian to slice the
ball wide of the target.
Two minutes later Nacho Novo tested Craig Gordon with
a twenty-yard drive from a wide-angle, but the
Scotland goalkeeper was equal to the task.
Hearts snatched the lead from the penalty spot on the
quarter-hour mark when a clearance from Stefan Klos
was headed back by Andy Webster straight into the path
of Mark De Vries who held off the challenge of
Jean-Alain Boumsong until going down on the six-yard
line. Referee Dougie McDonald awarded a spot-kick,
yellow-carded the French defender, and ignored the
demands of former Ranger Stephen Pressley that the
card should be of a stronger hue.
Paul Hartley did the needful from the spot - and
Rangers were up against it.
Six minutes later Gordon denied Rangers an equaliser,
holding Prso's twenty-yard shot from a Namouchi pass.
Rangers stepped up the pace as the interval
approached, and a mazy run from Novo should have
produced a goal only for Nacho to over-hit his cross -
Prso at full stretch heading wide.
The scores were levelled on the cusp of half-time
however when a Lovenkrands cross was turned into his
own net by Jamie McAllister with Fernando Ricksen
threatening.
Both sides made changes at the interval - Stephen
Smith (making his debut) replacing the ineffective
Maurice Ross and Christophe Berra substituting for
Pressley.
Rangers restarted with the knowledge that Celtic had
drawn 2-2 at Dundee, meaning that a home victory would
take the Ibrox men to the front in the title race -
and within ten minutes they were 2-1 ahead with a
superb goal. Zurab Khizanishvili was the creator,
releasing Novo with a through-ball that the little
Spaniard chipped over the advancing Gordon.
It might have been 3-1 in 64 minutes when Lovenkrands'
turn and shot from a Smith pass flashed just wide -
yet within sixty seconds the scores were level when
Joe Hamill's cross was headed home by De Vries, the
Dutchman meeting the ball just ahead of both Klos and
Marvin Andrews.
The Ibrox defence - rock-solid throughout this
campaign - was suddenly looking vulnerable and might
even have conceded a third in 76 minutes when a
McAllister cross found De Vries who headed over.
Sixty seconds later at the other end Andrews was
denied when his header from a Ricksen corner was
clawed away by Gordon.
Rangers regained the lead on 80 minutes when
substitute Stephen Hughes saw his cross headed home by
Novo.
The closing stages were tense, but that proved to be
the winning goal, giving Rangers pole position in the
title race for the first time in thirteen months.
Manager Alex McLeish - under so much pressure just two
months ago - reflected:
"I couldn't have asked for more. My players were
working on empty. Two late call-offs (Shota Arveladze
and Michael Ball) disrupted the preparation. It's been
a great couple of months, but the League isn't won in
November. There's a long way to go."
RANGERS Klos; Khizanishvili, Boumsong, Andrews, Ross
(S. Smith 45); Namouchi (Hughes 74), Ricksen, A. Rae,
Lovenkrands; Prso, Novo
UNUSED SUBS Hutton, G. Smith, Malcolm, Mladenovic,
Fetai
HEARTS Gordon; Neilson, Pressley (Berra 45), Webster,
McAllister; Hamill, Hartley, Wyness (Weir 58), Pereira
(Stewart 70), Kisnorbo; De Vries
UNUSED SUBS Sloan, Moilanen, MacFarlane, Janczyk
REFEREE Dougie McDonald
Attendance 48,494