Dundee 1
Rangers 7
League (Premier League)

Match Report

Dundee's bleak midwinter continued last night with the Dens side ripped apart by the champions in their worst ever SPL defeat.

An astonishing match saw satellite viewers all over the country treated to seven first-half goals and a comparatively lonely single after the break.

Rangers came north determined to reassert their authority after being held to draws by Hibernian and St Johnstone. They did exactly that with a performance which had their notoriously hard to please manager Dick Advocaat purring with satisfaction.

Rod Wallace grabbed his first hat trick in a year, Tony Vidmar bagged a double while Jorg Albertz and the Impressive Sebastian Rozental chipped in with singles.

As enjoyable viewing it must have made for followers of the Glasgow club, it was painful for those who prefer their blues dark rather than light.

Dundee, to an old phrase, started badly conceding the opener in just 75 seconds when Wallace ran on to a clever diagonal pass into the box from Glovanni Van Bronkhorst to shoot low into the corner of the net and fell away, allowing another five in the space of 23 minutes.

They did manage a fine score themselves-Steven Tweed out jumping Arthur Numan in the 27th minute to head home after Willie Falconer had directed Hugh Robertson's free kick back across the face of the Rangers goal-but it was scant consolation to their support increasingly alarmed at the pronto an end-of-season pushed of seeing their side relegation play-off.

As with the Aberdeen match five nights previously It could all have been so different for Dundee-a fact summed up by a dramatic 60 seconds of play midway through the first half when the score still stood at 1-0 to the visitors. The gasps that followed Stefan Klos' desperate save of James Grady's low shot in the21st minute had barely died down by the time Robert Douglas was picking the ball out of the net at the other end.

The Scotland squad member had been played despite being less than fully recovered from a knee injury and was caught out when Tony Vidmar rose unchallenged deep in the Dundee penalty box to head Andrei Kanchelkis' corner into the goal.

The pattern was then repeated on the half-hour mark with Willie Miller's 20-yard drive which brought a full-length save from Klos seeminly provoking Rangers. Wallace was again the executioner moments later, tapping in from a yard following clever play from Rozental and Van Bronkhorst.

Wallace then sealed his hat-trick, running on to Klos long and seemingly harmless punt up field to clip the ball over Douglas's head.

"It was ridiculous to lose a goal like that and part of some very poor defending by our side in the first half," said Dark Blues boss Jocky Scott, who had Craig Ireland missing after the central defender failed a fitness test on his knee.

"Rangers are a very good side and you simply can't afford to give them any leeway whatsoever and we certainly did that tonight."

Scott added, "The game is past us now and what we have to do is make sure we pick ourselves up for the challenge ahead."

Away games against Celtic and Kilmarnock face Dundee in the coming week.

Scott defended the move to field Douglas on the grounds that managers want their best players involved against the top sides.

The keeper deserves credit for being prepared to play for as he said it was a chastening experience.

"I have never let in seven goals in a game before and certainly never want to do so again," he said.

"Like all the other lads I am devastated at the way the game went.

"Rangers played very well but our defending was not good enough."

In Douglas's defence there was certainly little he could do about Rangers final three goals.

Number five arrived via an Albertz 30-yard thunderbolt in 38 minutes; the sixth, moments before half-time, was a Rozental blast from close in which came courtesy of a beautiful chipped pass from Wallace; and Vidmar completed the scoring with a left-foot volley three minutes from time.

"Some of the football we played tonight was excellent," said Advocaat, who took the chance to give former Lawside Academy pupil Maurice Ross a run-out in his home city.

"I had told the players that the performance against St Johnstone was not acceptable and they responded with some very high quality football."

Dundee's Hugh Robertson (foul on Albertz) was booked as was Lee Wilkie for a foul on McCann.

Match report written by The Courier