Ferguson treble stretches Rangers' lead

Rangers 3 Dundee United

There were some seasonal splashes of colour at Ibrox yesterday, not all of them full of cheer. Red-letter day for Barry Ferguson, with a first ever hat-trick; red mist for Fernando Ricksen, his fourth dismissal in a Rangers shirt.

Nothing could disguise the contribution of Ferguson, not recognised as a goal-taker, but now with 13 to his name. The captain sits as solidly at the top of his team's scoring charts as Rangers do in the Scottish Premier League.

Rangers' unblemished record at home was in stark contrast to that of Dundee United, whose struggle at the other end of the table is largely due to their inability to win a single game at Tannadice.

The leaders, still flooded with the adrenalin that came from their Old Firm success here a week ago, would have been in front after 11 minutes had Paul Gallacher not executed a wonderful save to deny Shota Arveladze, whose angled shot was touched wide of the post by the goalkeeper.

However, the expectant home crowd had only another 60 seconds to wait to see the ball in the net. Ferguson added to his growing reputation as a free-kick taker, with a sublime touch that lifted the ball up and over the wall from 25 yards to place it in the top corner.

You feared for Dundee United, there and then. For the next 10 minutes Rangers subjected them to fierce scrutiny. Arveladze had the ball in the net but was given offside.

Gradually, though, Dundee United came back into the contest. At the core of all their moves was Charlie Miller, back at the club where he began, and the midfielder came close with a long-range shot on the half-hour after a delightful exchange of passes with Jim McIntyre.

Derek Lilley then saw a volley that was net-bound strike Kevin Muscat, who knew nothing about it, before going wide. Seconds before half-time Steven Thompson showed great control to advance on the Rangers' area, but was tugged back by Craig Moore as he went past the defender, though no punishment came for the offender.

Rangers could find no degree of comfort in the second half either, and it took a controversial goal in the 56th minute from Ferguson to get them there.

United felt aggrieved by two key components in the build-up to the Rangers captain bursting from his own half and finishing his second goal by neatly placing the ball beyond Gallacher. First, Ricksen clearly tugged the shirt of Craig Easton in order for Ferguson to win the ball and then the referee, Stuart Dougal, ignored a linesman's offside flag against Ronald De Boer who clearly interfered with David McCracken as Ferguson swept past the last defender.

Three minutes later, Ricksen found himself sent off after he lunged at Miller, and could have little argument with the decision, though he stayed around for several minutes to do just that.

Jim Hamilton could have reduced the deficit shortly afterwards, but the Dundee United striker saw his header beaten away by Klos and 11 minutes from the end the visitors' last hope of any comeback went when McIntyre was sent off for a fresh-air kick at Arveladze.

Rangers took advantage by inflicting a third goal in the 86th minute after McCracken brought down Arveladze, allowing Ferguson to sweep the penalty past Gallacher.