Rangers overcame Aberdeen 1-0 at Ibrox as Philip McGuire and Neil McCann were both sent off in the Scottish Premier League clash.

The victory, thanks to a rare Tugay goal, means the champions have cut Celtic's lead to nine points. But the game will not be remembered for the quality of football on show as there was not a lot of that.

The match exploded midway through the second half with the dismissal of first McGuire, the young Aberdeen defender, and then Scotland winger McCann.

It took 35 minutes for either side to plant a shot on target - but when a chance did arrive it ended up in the back of the net.

Tugay latched on to the loose ball after his own free-kick had bounced off the Aberdeen wall.

The Turk does not often start for Rangers let alone score but his shot was as sweetly struck as they come and flew past David Preece's outstretched right arm.

Rangers had Barry Ferguson, Jorg Albertz, Claudio Reyna and Ronald de Boer all missing to either injury or suspension and it showed as the collection of replacements laboured to create anything meaningful.

Aberdeen defended stoutly, showed plenty of movement when they had the ball and pressed when they could, content to allow the home side and their fans to become more and more frustrated.

Tugay's strike changed all that and Preece had a busy 10 minutes before the break, having to make saves from Kenny Miller and his fit-again partner Tore Andre Flo.

Flo looked a little lacking in the match-fitness department but seemed to be aided by some generous offside decisions by one particular linesman.

Rangers ended the first half on song but reappeared after the break as the same ponderous ensemble that had begun the match.

It was desperately poor fare and Miller was hauled off before the hour mark to see if Allan Johnston could make a difference.

There was virtually no decent football, but that was almost an irrelevance when the game suddenly changed into a bad-tempered slugging match.

Again it all began with Tugay, who reacted to a centre-circle challenge from Derek Whyte and he was seen to strike out at McGuire, who had quickly joined the resulting melee.

Tugay and McGuire were both booked but the Aberdeen man still had the red mist in front of his eyes as he immediately engaged in a shoving match with McCann following a touchline tussle. Both were booked and that meant a red card for the young defender.

But that was not all as immediately Darren Young clattered McCann, who again reacted and the double booking that followed meant he had to follow McGuire down the tunnel.

Rangers created and missed a few half chances to wrap up the game and in the end needed goalkeeper Stefan Klos to protect their precious lead.

That was when substitute Darren Mackie had motored his way past challenge after challenge to put himself in an excellent position in the box but could not find the finish to match the speedy approach play.