Rangers last night wrapped up the championship with the same kind of care and forethought that marks out those people who buy their Christmas presents in the summer sales. The Ibrox side are, to all intents and purposes, uncatchable with two months of the season left, a clear 12 points in front of Celtic.

Once again the Bhoys were in overall control of an Old Firm match but could not make that superiority pay. For 80 minutes it looked as if they could not lose. Ten minutes later they were trooping off with heads buried in their hands.

Those closing moments summed up the whole campaign. After Celtic had donned their working clothes to batter their way through the atrocious underfoot conditions, they managed to lose their way.

In the 81st minute Giovanni Van Bronckhorst's clever pass to Neil McCann gave him the yard he needed to run away from Johan Mjallby, who pulled him down. Jorg Albertz, usually so reliable, drove the penalty against Jonathan Gould, who kept it out with his legs.

But there was worse to come for Celtic. Three minutes later Van Bronckhorst placed his pass into that same channel, where spaces had started to appear as Celtic tired. This time Rod Wallace made the run and squeezed his shot inside the post.

The Englishman may have had a fitful season, but the Ibrox manager Dick Advocaat has been loyal, and his patience was spectacularly rewarded.

Celtic's approach, on the face of it, was exceedingly cautious. They played four defenders and two wing-backs, hardly encouraging the other midfielders to get forward. The home side were just intent on placing as many shields as they could between themselves and the free-running Rangers midfield.

In fairness it worked throughout the first half, as Rangers could not find rhythm on a pitch unsuited to their purposes. Indeed Celtic created a number of chances to take the lead. The best of them all came in the seventh minute, when Stephane Mahe wandered down the left and crossed so well that Craig Moore was taken out of the game.

The ball fell to Mark Viduka eight yards out, he controlled it well and seemed bound to score when he side-footed the ball towards the corner of the net. However, the Rangers goalkeeper Stefan Klos made a truly remarkable save, almost doing the splits and stopping the effort with his outstretched left foot.

With Viduka and Jackie McNamara finding more space than should have been available on the right flank, Celtic's decision to leave the finer arts in the dressing-room seemed justified as they lumped the ball out of the mud towards the green bits. But as time went on, they began to rue that lost early chance.

There was no shortage of spirit either. When the defender Tom Boyd was caught by the boot of Rod Wallace in a fair challenge, his eye started to swell alarmingly. But his visit to the touchline was short-lived and indeed he came back to provide a through ball which gave Viduka another chance to score the elusive first goal.

But that was missed as well and at half-time Rangers had good reason to be happy about the scoreline. After 90 minutes they were simply delighted.

Rangers manager Dick Advocaat was understandably impressed with his side's win. "Celtic created some very good chances, especially in the first half-hour, and we were lucky they didn't score. But in the second half, we had the game in our hands. There were not many chances and there were some good saves from Stefan Klos."

Celtic: Gould, Riseth, Boyd, Stubbs, Mjallby (Burchill 85), McNamara, Petrov, Wieghorst, Mahe, Moravcik, Viduka. Subs Not Used: Kerr, Berkovic, Rafael, Blinker. Booked: Moravcik, Mjallby.

Rangers: Klos, Moore, Amoruso, Numan, Ferguson, Van Bronckhorst, Wallace, Albertz, Reyna, Vidmar, McCann. Subs Not Used: Brown, Kanchelskis, Rozental, Nicholson, Kerimoglu. Booked: Numan. Goals: Wallace 86.

Referee: Jim McCluskey (Scotland).