Champions-elect Rangers held by 10-man United

Rangers may have to wait longer than they would like to wrap up the Scottish Premier League title after being held to a 0-0 draw by 10-man Dundee United on Wednesday.

If Walter Smith’s team had beaten United they would have been able to claim the championship with another victory over Hearts on Sunday, but they now need Celtic to drop points against Hibernian 24 hours earlier for that to happen.

The Ibrox club are 11 points clear of second placed Celtic and are certain to retain the title, but they will be disappointed not to have killed off United at Tannadice after Mihael Kovacevic’s second half dismissal.

Smith said: “That’s us another step towards the championship – albeit maybe a slower one than we would have hoped for.

“It’s a natural thing that the players want to win it, but just because we have had a consistency this season that maybe a lot of the others teams haven’t had, doesn’t mean to say that we don’t get difficult matches.

“This was a difficult one and we were maybe unfortunate not to shade it at the end. We are getting there.”

Madjid Bougherra made his long-awaited return for Rangers after finally recovering from the hamstring injury which had sidelined the Algerian defender since February.

Smith’s side threatened first as Steven Davis curled a free-kick just wide, but the hosts went straight down the other end to force Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor into action as Garry Kenneth tried his luck from long-range.

United had two good chances to take the lead when Prince Buaben slipped a clever pass through to Danny Cadamarteri, only for the former Everton striker to scuff his shot into the side-netting.

Then Francisco Sandaza then nodded just over the crossbar, but Rangers striker Kenny Miller was also close to opening the scoring as his dipping volley was kept out by Dusan Pernis.

Maurice Edu tried his luck from distance at the start of the second half but the Rangers star failed to hit the target.

But it was United who could have taken the lead when Cadamarteri squeezed between Bougherra and Steven Whittaker only to drag his left-foot shot wide.

United found themselves down to 10 men with 20 minutes to go when Kovacevic was shown a straight red card by referee Brian Winters for foolishly kicking out at Kyle Lafferty.

Rangers tried to make the most of their numerical advantage and Miller stabbed wide before Bougherra saw his attempt to lob the goalkeeper land on the roof of the net.

Kris Boyd then found himself through on goal after pouncing on a Kenneth passback but Pernis raced off his line to block and deny the striker the opportunity to end his goal drought.

Substitute Nacho Novo had the ball in the back of the net in stoppage time but Boyd had already been flagged for offside, before Miller crashed his shot off the post.