Football: Spoils shared at Ibrox

Rangers. 1

Celtic. .1

Ibrox erupted with the traditional explosion yesterday in a furious derby of evenly matched ammunition. After just two minutes Gerry Creaney fired past Rangers' right-hand post, 90 minutes later Stuart Slater shaved their left- hand upright at the other end, and in between there was a continuous end-to-end battle.

The fireworks started immediately and it was the referee, Jim McCluskey, who set the first sparks to ignite a barrage of noise from the Rangers' support. After just four minutes he booked Ian Ferguson for up-ending Mike Galloway, a minute later he disallowed a Trevor Steven goal for offside and then blew again for offside, pulling up Mark Hateley in mid-charge towards the Celtic goal.

Paul McStay - ubiquitous and creative with it - led the Celtic charge, firing just wide from 25 yards, one of four early shots to come within a passing wink of the Rangers' woodwork.

Celtic's lead arrived in a cocktail of fortune and firm finishing. The pressurised Rangers defender, John Brown, so poorly mis- timed his back-header that he beat the rest of his defence, and Creaney scored with a half-volley.

But Rangers roared back and eventually Ian Durrant levelled the scoreline, Huistra's pass positioning him to fire in neatly through a melee of goalmouth defenders.

Rangers: A Goram; I Ferguson, D Robertson, R Gough, D MacPherson, J Brown, T Steven (I Durrant, 61 min), McCall, A McCoist, M Hateley (A Mikhailichenko, 81 min), P Huistra.

Celtic: G Marshall; T Boyd, M Galloway, P Grant, T Mowbray, M McNally (B O'Neil, 61 min), J Miller, P McStay, A Payton (S Slater, 79 min), G Creaney, J Collins.

Referee: J McCluskey (Stewarton).

Goals: Creaney (0-1, 54 min); Durrant (1-1, 69 min).