Dundee United.............0 Rangers..............1

Rangers moved into the history books last night - putting the stumbling performance against Motherwell behind them - with this victory against Dundee United which gave them their ninth title in succession.

That equals the Celtic record and already the roars from the Ibrox fans were demanding a tenth next season.

The party, postponed on Monday, simply moved to Dundee, where thousands of Rangers fans acclaimed the team who won narrowly but whose performance was as convincing as manager Walter Smith had demanded.

Disappointed by the Motherwell defeat, Smith had said that the championship was there to be won, and it would be won by the players' efforts.

They took that to heart. They gave a display which should have earned them victory by a greater margin.

For, as well as the Brian Laudrup goal, the Dane, and his up-front partner, Gordon Durie, missed chances, easy chances, in the first-half.

Then, after the interval, Charlie Miller struck woodwork.

Against a team which had twice beaten them in the second half of the season, it was the type of performance the fans had missed on Monday and had waited to enjoy last night.

It was evident from the start of the game that this was a different, more determined, more incisive team that had met Motherwell.

Even though Rangers went in without their influential captain, Richard Gough, and their born-again striker, Mark Hateley, they had Paul Gascoigne there from the beginning. His talents, combined with those of Laudrup, meant that United were in for a difficult evening.

That was, indeed, how it turned out.

After six minutes, a low shot from Durie skidded off the sodden turf and Sieb Dykstra got to it but was only able to push the ball away for a corner at full stretch.

In 11 minutes, Rangers were able to do what they failed to do on Monday - they scored. It was a goal of essential simplicity, but a goal which was perfectly executed.

David Robertson released Miller down the left. He crossed and Laudrup was there to snap a header beyond Dykstra. Yes, a header, which gave him his twentieth goal of a season during which he had been Rangers' most important player.

That helped to ease the tension, to remove the nervousness which had inflicted so many of the players 48 hours before.

As United reeled, Rangers continued to move forward and dominate the game.

Miller had a volley from 20 yards pushed over the bar by Dykstra before the Ibrox men had an astonishing double miss after 22 minutes.

Miller had given Laudrup an opening. The Dane carried the ball past Dykstra then allowed his effort at goal to be cleared by Erik Pedersen.

The ball ran to Durie, who shot only to see Pedersen clear the ball just short of the unguarded line.

In the second-half, the pattern remained the same. In 54 minutes, Gascoigne struck a curling shot from 25 yards which deceived Dykstra and then struck the base of a post.

Eighteen minutes later, Miller struck the bar with a marvellous shot from the edge of the box. Ten minutes from the end manager Smith signalled for Gascoigne to come off and be substituted by Ally McCoist, but the midfield man stayed in place and it was the closing minutes before he agreed to leave the field and allow his buddy to come on to celebrate his personal nine in a row.

Laudrup also went off and Derek McInnes appeared shortly after, it was over and in the stands around Tannadice the celebrations began.

The only blot on the 90 minutes was an eight-minute spell in the first-half when referee Stuart Dougal suffered a surge of yellow fever. He booked five players between the twenty-fifth and thirty-third minute and this in a game which never looked like getting out of hand.

The first caution went to Dundee United's Lars Zetterlund and the next four went to Rangers players, Craig Moore, Laudrup, Alan McLaren, and Gordan Petric.

However, by the end of the night, as the Rangers players frolicked around Tannadice, the bookings had been forgotten.

Dundee United - Dykstra, McInally, McKimmie, Pressley, Perry, Pedersen, Olafsson, Zetterlund, McSwegan, McKinnon, McLaren. Substitutes - Winters, Dolan, Black.

Rangers - Dibble, Cleland, Robertson, Petric, McLaren, Bjorklund, Moore, Gascoigne, Durie, Miller, Laudrup. Substitutes - Albertz, McCoist, McInnes.

Referee - S Dougal (Burnside)