A FIRST-HALF Joe Aribo strike, a second-half Ryan Sweeney own goal and a late Alfredo Morelos effort ensured Rangers beat Dundee comfortably at Ibrox this afternoon and extended their lead over Celtic at the top of the cinch Premiership to seven points.

At the same time, the deserved victory stretched Giovanni van Bronckhorsts’s winning run since succeeding Steven Gerrard as manager at the Scottish champions to four games – the Dutchman had previously overseen victories over Sparta Prague, Livingston and Hibernian.

James Tavernier and his team mates dominated the league encounter from kick-off and would have won far more emphatically had it not been for the outstanding performance of Adam Legzdins in the visitors’ goal.

Celtic can reduce the gap at the top of the table to four points tomorrow afternoon if they overcome Dundee United at Tannadice.  

Dundee travelled to Glasgow on the back of an impressive run of form that has seen them move away from the foot of the table; they had beaten St Mirren, Motherwell and St Johnstone in their previous four games.

Their manager James McPake, not surprisingly, made just one change to the side that had beaten their Tayside rivals 1-0 in midweek. Christie Elliott took over from Max Anderson in central midfield in the visitors’ 4-4-1-1 formation.

But the Dens Park club had Adam Legzdins, their English goalkeeper, to thank for keeping them on level terms during the opening half an hour. The home team unpicked their defence on several occasions and only some desperate defending and fingertip saves kept them level.

Scott Arfield had the opportunity to put Rangers ahead in the sixth minute following some nice work by Ianis Hagi and Morelos outside the Dundee penalty area. But Sweeney got his body in front of the midfielder ushered the ball back to Legzdins.

Fashion Sakala, deployed wide on the left of the front three in the absence of Ryan Kent, fired over the crossbar and then had an attempt blocked by Liam Fontaine. The keeper then pushed his goal-bound volley wide at full stretch.

Borna Barisic and Tavernier tried their luck from long-range, but Legzdins, the former Derby County, Birmingham City and Burnley man, was untroubled by their ambitious efforts.

Leigh Griffiths, the Celtic striker who is on loan at Dundee this term, dd not exactly go unnoticed when he emerged from the away dugout to warm up at the side of the pitch with his team mates Alex Jakubiak and Jason Cummings in the first-half.

The Union Bears ultras group turned the air blue barracking a player who became their No1 hate figure during is time at Parkhead. The former Scotland internationalist, who would have fully expected the abuse, seemed quite tickled by all of the attention.

Danny Mullen, who had been selected by McPake to play up front ahead of Griffiths, received little useful service. But he did have an opportunity to net in the 27th minute following an uncharacteristic error by Glen Kamara in the middle of the park.

Kamara underhit his pass to Barisic and Luke McCowan intercepted and burst upfield. He supplied Jordan Marshall and the left back found Mullen in space in the Rangers area The forward’s header, though, lacked power and the score remained goalless.

There was nothing wrong with Connor Goldson’s header at a James Tavernier corner moments later. Once again, however, Legzdins palmed it away.

It was going to take something a little out of the ordinary to beat Dundee’s keeper. When Aribo’s shot took a wicked deflection off of Fontaine nine minutes before half-time and spun into the net it finally happened. But nobody inside the ground could argue the fortuitous opener was against the run of play.

Legzdins denied Morelos twice before half-time and then picked up where he had left off in the second-half by blocking attempts from Arfield, Aribo and Morelos again.

He could, though, do little about the second Rangers goal in the 55th inute. Aribo squared across his goal and Sweeney stuck a leg out and diverted it past him.

Griffiths had taken over from Charlie Adam by that stage. But he was unable to haul Dundee back into proceedings. He was actually fortunate to stay on the park. He was booked by referee Alan Muir for a foul on Aribo and could have seen red soon afterwards when he scythed down Calvin Bassey.

Morelos, who had worked hard both inside and outside the box, made it 3-0 with 20 minutes remaining to take his tally for the 2021/22 campaign to 10 and sew up an impressive win.