A match that ended in a riot of recriminations boiled down to one unalterable fact: Rangers won and, in doing so, moved a step closer to winning the championship.

Dundee United ended the game nursing a deserved sense of injustice. Rangers ended it with a lap of honour. If the title ultimately ends up at Ibrox then Rangers will look back on this as a pivotal afternoon.

We had a hero (Nacho Novo), a villain (Mike McCurry) . . . and Craig Levein.

The United manager launched an astonishing tirade against referee McCurry, whose decisions he felt had undermined his side's second-half hopes of a comeback. Whether Noel Hunt's strong penalty claim or Danny Swanson's disallowed goal would have impacted on the outcome of the game is uncertain.

What is certain is that McCurry made two errors of judgment. The Irishman, Hunt, was impeded by Weir in the 55th minute, but no spot-kick was awarded.

Swanson's shot in the 71st minute deflected off Weir, and not the offside figure of David Robertson, en route to the bottom corner of the net. In the dugout, Levein shouted the odds. Walter Smith simply shrugged and started to count his three points.

It should not be forgotten, however, that Rangers were already two goals to the good by that point.

The Ibrox side did not want to play this fixture in the first place and their breakneck start to the game suggested that they wanted to finish it as quickly as possible. Once again, Nacho Novo was their talisman with a couple of goals inside the first 18 minutes.

The Spaniard has become a cult hero at Ibrox whose every move is cheered to the rafters. His first was a well-taken header, the second a glorious, arcing effort that dipped into the far corner.

Novo may even have played himself into a starting slot against Zenit St Petersburg in Wednesday's UEFA Cup final. "His contributions overall have been terrific and he could have even got a hat-trick today," said Smith.

By the time United finally breached the Rangers rearguard, through Mark De Vries in the 76th minute, it was too little, too late. The home side had regrouped enough to avoid any further concessions and added a third at the death through Jean-Claude Darcheville.

Rangers also came through the match unscathed. Kirk Broadfoot, Sasa Papac and Barry Ferguson all picked up knocks during the match, but ran them off. Kevin Thomson was the most serious concern and was substituted in the second half with an ankle problem, but he should also be fit for Wednesday.

Inevitably, the post-match inquest focused on the moments of controversy and Lee Wilkie, the Dundee United captain, was left incensed.

"I'm really struggling for words to describe how I feel," he said. "I thought it was a stonewall penalty and then you're talking about a red card for the player Weir. Then to get a goal disallowed for nothing in my eyes is unbelievable."

Of the disallowed goal, Wilkie sought explanations from McCurry and his assistant Stuart MacAulay, in the immediate aftermath, and received conflicting accounts. "The referee didn't know," he said. "It was the linesman who made the decision.

"The referee started off by saying it had hit Robertson and gone in, then the linesman changed it and said it was because Robertson was in the vision of the goalkeeper.

"I can understand it if he was floating about five yards in front of the keeper - that would be interfering with play.

"But he was 30 yards away and nowhere near the keeper.

I don't really think the referee knew what the linesman had given. Some players go out in front of 40,000 and they don't perform, they fold under the pressure and it's got to be the same with referees. I don't know if you'd say they were doing that on purpose but that's the way it looks."

Wilkie also claimed he was assaulted by Daniel Cousin. "We got into a bit of a tangle, then Cousin stuck the head on me. Luckily I'm about five inches bigger than him or I would have got it on the face.

"I went across to him, had a word and got booked for it. So he got a booking and I got a booking. It just summed up the day really."

Levein claimed that Kirk Broadfoot punched Hunt in the face after the United goal, but the Rangers defender denied the accusation.

"Noel Hunt ran into my shoulder," said Broadfoot. "I've not punched him. Things like that happen. I don't know why Craig Levein said that.

"He said the same last year at Tannadice when Noel Hunt kicked me in the face."