Rangers within point of Bhoys after Old Firm win

Rangers 2 Celtic 0

Rangers emerged victorious from the Ibrox battleground after first-half goals from Nacho Novo and Dado Prso decided a brutal and controversial Old Firm derby.

Celtic ended the game with nine men following red cards for Alan Thompson and then Chris Sutton on a day when any number of other players could have also gone.

It was Rangers manager Alex McLeish’s second Old Firm victory in 10 days, with the first having ended a seven-derby losing streak.

More importantly it narrowed Celtic’s lead at the top to just a point to set up a battle royal in the coming months with a repeat of the last-day dead heat of two years ago now a possibility.

Rangers triumphed on goal difference then and Hoops manager Martin O’Neill showed he was up for the forthcoming fight by putting an arm round Neil Lennon, the man Rangers fans like to abuse most, on the final whistle and presenting him as if in triumph to the Hoops fans behind one goal.

It was the final incident of a day which had been packed with them, with the controversy out-numbering the quality football.

Celtic striker Henri Camara hit the bar from point-blank range in the sixth minute although John Hartson had jumped unfairly with Gregory Vignal and the Hoops were in control until their defence pressed the self-destruct button in the 15th minute.

Bobo Balde was under no pressure as Zura Khizanishvili floated a ball from the right away from any colleague but he succeeded in heading only as far as Hamed Namouchi on the edge of the box.

The midfielder quickly sent it back into the box where Joos Valgaeren’s challenge on Novo was ill-timed and a spot-kick was the inevitable result.

Novo took it himself and despatched it past Magnus Hedman, who had been preferred in goal to David Marshall.

The Spaniard was only on the field because the red card he had picked up for kicking at Hibernian’s Craig Rocastle last week had been downgraded to yellow on appeal.

However he was involved in a similar incident within minutes of the start of this game, with Jackie McNamara the player involved, and so could find himself in trouble again, especially as the cameras which cleared him yesterday appeared also to capture a second-half incident when his left boot landed on the head of Celtic substitute Stephen Pearson.

The same applied to Bob Malcolm, who had been dropped to the bench so Alex Rae could play.

He was escorted up the tunnel by Police, presumably for a warning after an inflammatory gesture to the away end.

Exactly how Camara stayed on the pitch is a mystery as the Senegalese star was booked for raising his hands to former Wolves team-mate Rae and then in first-half stoppage time clearly kicked Vignal after the Frenchman had fouled him.

By that time Rangers were 2-0 up and Celtic a man down with Prso having headed home a Fernando Ricksen free-kick in the 35th minute after Sutton had been booked for fouling Rae.

Within three minutes of that goal all 11 players and three officials were involved in a melee sparked by Lovenkrands’ foul on McNamara.

Thompson confronted the Dane and pushed his face aggressively into his opponent’s, although whether it was the full-blooded head-butt Lovenkrands made it seem with his fall to the turf was debatable.

Referee Clark showed Thompson the red card to add to his dismissal on this ground in 2000 when Rangers won 5-1 to avenge a previous 6-2 thrashing.

Lovenkrands was booked for the foul and Rae and Lennon for their part in the recriminations which followed.

Rae had been brought to Ibrox to add fire to the side in the same way Lennon does for Celtic but his loss of temper was apparent when Rangers captain Stefan Klos tried to restrain him from confronting Celtic men on the way to the tunnel.

Camara did not reappear at the restart, with Pearson replacing him and Sutton moving to midfield.

Lovenkrands was also ordered to stay behind, with Shota Arveladze – the substitute hero of his side’s extra-time success against the Hoops in the CIS Insurance Cup 10 days ago – coming on.

Hedman pawed over a Prso shot from point-blank range and the Croat was on the end of the corner before Celtic scrambled the ball away.

In the 56th minute Celtic were reduced to nine men when Sutton was shown a second yellow card after using a hand twice in the space of a few seconds to add an extra twist to an already astonishing spectacle.

Michael Ball replaced the hobbling Vignal just before the hour mark and Klos was required to make his first meaningful save in the 64th minute to deny Stilian Petrov from finishing off a fine passing move by the nine men.

Khizanishvili was booked for a foul on McNamara and then replaced by Malcolm, with the game much calmer now. Celtic’s only aim was to avoid further damage and they managed to achieve that with aplomb.

Celtic sent teenager Aiden McGeady on for Petrov with 11 minutes remaining but ended up failing to score in a derby for the first time since Martin O’Neill took charge in the summer of 2000.

Namouchi should have made it 3-0 late on but fired wide to waste a fine move which had been begun by Rae winning two tackles and also involved Arveladze and Novo.