Rangers beat hapless Hibs

Rangers 4

Flo played only the final few minutes of his side’s 4-2 win at bottom club Hibernian, who are the Scottish Premier League’s only pointless club, and Mols took no part at all.

Instead, Flo’s replacement Peter Lovenkrands scored two goals, with Ronald de Boer and Barry Ferguson on the scoresheet as well.

Hibs found the net through substitutes Derek Townsley and Garry O’Connor but also had Paco Luna controversially sent off.

McLeish said: ‘‘Peter did really well. It wasn’t a slight on Tore because I think he had a hard week with all the speculation. I felt it was better to take the pressure off him a little bit.”

‘‘There has been nothing further (on the deals) over the weekend. We will wait and see how things unfold over the next couple of days.’’

Rangers had deserved the points and could have scored more, with Lovenkrands missing the bulk of them.

McLeish added: ‘‘Winning is the most important thing. The way we started the game was the key for us. We took the game to Hibs and played at the tempo that I demand from my team.’’

Hibernian manager Bobby Williamson conceded his side had deserved to lose.

He said: ‘‘It could have been more. Thankfully it was only four and we managed to get a consolation.

‘‘I’m a realist and looking at the game I don’t think - at 4-2 - it was ever as close as that.’’ But Williamson was angry about the Luna sending-off, which was a second bookable offence in referee Hugh Dallas’ eyes - handling the ball while putting it over the line: ‘‘He said he has headed the ball first and it has come off his arm. If you dive you dive with your arms out, you don’t dive with them behind your back. I don’t think he has swung his arm at it. It was accidental but because it was going to cause a goal the referee decided to chalk it off and send him away.’’

Rangers also thought they were denied a legitimate goal when Shota Arveladze had a header ruled out for offside with the score at 1-0.

A late goal by Hearts derby hero Mark De Vries gave the Jambos a share of the points in an explosive encounter at Aberdeen. Big Dutchman De Vries scored four goals in the Edinburgh derby last week and pounced again when all looked lost for the visitors. Laurent D’Jaffo’s first goal for Aberdeen after 72 minutes looked enough to give the home side all three points, but the home side reckoned without De Vries who, six minutes later, stabbed a shot from close range into the corner of the net.