An unusual evening at Ibrox ended with a familiar scoreline as spectacular goals from Jorg Albertz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst put Dundee United to the sword after Andrei Kanchelskis had put Rangers on the road to victory.

Marco Negri was included in the starting line-up for the first time since April 1998 and teenager Mark Brown replaced Stefan Klos in goal.

The teamsheet filled in by Rangers manager Dick Advocaat contained five names not on starting duty in Istanbul in midweek, with the plan being to rest as many of those battle-weary troops from the 3-2 Champions League defeat against Galatasaray as possible.

Negri, the Italian striker who scored goals by the bucketful on his arrival in Glasgow before becoming Ibrox's forgotten man, was warmly applauded by the home supporters before kick-off.

But more than 44,000 fans did not create much of an atmosphere afterwards as the match soon proved to be the foregone conclusion that everybody had expected.

The SPL's bottom club United, still seeking their first league win of the season, gave debuts to Argentinian Gustavo Fuentes and Marcelino Galoppo in an increasingly cosmopolitan line-up.

Despite the subdued atmosphere, Rangers stuck to their task in the knowledge that Celtic's slip-up at Aberdeen meant their six-point lead at the top of the table would be cut in half.

As for United, anything other than a defeat would have done but their fate was already sealed by half-time.

Kanchelskis' 34th-minute opener had a large element of luck in it as his mis-hit shot bounced back to him off Bert Konterman's foot and the recalled Russian made no mistake, lashing the ball into the net via a deflection off goalkeeper Alan Combe.

Albertz doubled the lead with a free-kick smashed past Combe after Kanchelskis had been fouled and United's misery was compounded in first-half stoppage time when Craig Easton was sent off for a tackle that left Giovanni van Bronckhorst writhing in agony.

United had already lost their collective temper with Galoppo and substitute Anastasios Venetis booked in quick succession, and when Easton's reckless challenge floored Rangers' in-form Dutchman, United were reduced to 10 men.

The second half was also going to be a question of how many - although United created a couple of chances with Jason de Vos heading at Brown and Fuentes forcing a good save out of the young goalkeeper.

But it was the home side who did most of the attacking. Tugay sent Negri galloping goalwards, but he could not hit the target and then Albertz was similarly inaccurate after some nice work from Ronald de Boer.

Tugay's next long-range effort was on target, but Combe was equal to it. Although he was wrong-footed and helpless when van Bronckhorst saw his shot deflected, but it went wide.

Fernando Ricksen, in at right-back for Claudio Reyna, saw a back-post header saved as Rangers forced a succession of corners.

Twice Arthur Numan did well down the left flank and from his cross Negri headed off target from close range.

Tugay fired another effort over and Negri felt he should have had a penalty when he went down under substitute Jean Licini's challenge.

But in the 74th minute van Bronckhorst scored a memorable goal, smashing the ball past Combe from fully 25 yards giving him no chance.

Substitute Billy Dodds tried a similar effort but saw it tipped over and there was almost a consolation goal for United in stoppage time when Brown tipped Hasney Aljofree's free-kick on to a post.

But unsurprisingly the last word went to Rangers and another substitute, Kenny Miller, almost made it four when his shot was deflected just wide of the post.