Rangers yesterday reacquired their old habit of contriving victory out of a moderate performance to take them back to the top of the table and two points clear of Kilmarnock. Rangers laboured unimaginatively against Dundee, opponents with limited ambition, until Jorg Albertz's late winner brought relief. They also enjoyed a certain amount of good fortune when the linesman failed to notice that the substitute Sebastian Rozental looked offside when the ball was played into the visitors' penalty area.
The ball was headed out and found its way to Albertz on the left for the German midfielder to drive it low and powerfully from 30 yards to the left of Robert Douglas. Albertz should have completed his double and made the scoreline more convincing when he took a penalty awarded in stoppage time after Douglas had challenged the substitute Charlie Miller. But the goalkeeper atoned for his recklessness by throwing himself to the right to push the ball away.
Elsewhere yesterday, Hearts gave a debut to French international Vincent Guerin in their 1-1 draw at home against St Johnstone and the former Paris St Germain man put on a fine performance.
The visitors took the lead in the 56th minute when one of Hearts' other Frenchmen, goalkeeper Gilles Rousset, punched a John O'Neill cross straight to former Hearts midfielder Allan Preston who volleyed into the net.
Lee Makel equalised for Hearts, who now have 13 points and join Celtic in joint third place. At Tannadice, Gary McSwegan's 23rd-minute goal continued Dundee United's revival under new boss Paul Sturrock, as they beat Aberdeen to move off the bottom the Premier League.
McSwegan sealed victory when a long free-kick by Sieb Dykstra was helped on to Dodds on the edge of the box. He played it across the area and McSwegan swept it wide of Jim Leighton into the goalkeeper's right-hand corner.
On Saturday, champions Celtic manufactured a 2-1 victory over Motherwell. Goals from Harald Brattbakk and Paul Lambert in the first-half took them to victory with Derek Adams getting a consolation on the stroke of full-time.
