A first-half cracker from Tugay and a late clincher from substitute Michael Mols were enough to give Rangers victory in Scotland's first pay-per-view fixture.

The win at Dunfermline's expense lifted them into second place above Hibernian, whose game at Aberdeen had been called off earlier in the day.

And, arguably more significantly, it means leaders Celtic's advantage was cut to six points, at least until Martin O'Neill's side takes on Hearts tomorrow evening.

It's difficult to keep Tugay out of the headlines these days and his 29th-minute opener was worthy of a barrel of newsprint.

The man who had scored the winner against Aberdeen in midweek, and then filled the back pages with his bizarre tale of his insulted dead mother, topped all that with a volley of the highest quality.

Rangers had been toiling up to that point with Tore Andre Flo finding his Moroccan marker Youssef Rossi particularly hard to shake off.

But the one time Rossi hit the deck, Flo made use of his freedom to quickly set up Arthur Numan for a cross that was headed away only as far as the Turk, who lashed it in first time from 25 yards out.

Up until then Rangers had mustered only a few snapshots from Flo and Allan Johnston which failed to hit an inviting target.

True, Fernando Ricksen had hit the crossbar with a header on the hoof from Kenny Miller's cross from the left which came directly after another juddering Flo-Rossi collision, but the away side had been coping too well for the home fans' liking.

Rangers injury woes continued soon after the goal when Tony Vidmar, who had started as one of three centre backs, fell to the turf in agony after stopping ex-Ranger Barry Nicholson's right-wing raid.

Nicholson seemed to have played no part in the injury, which saw the Australian stretchered off, with the bobbly Ibrox turf a far more likely culprit.

Rangers manager Dick Advocaat took a long time pondering the inevitable change but when it came it certainly worked.

A switch to a flat back four was made and Miller dropped back to allow Mols to partner Flo up front.

Within seconds the substitute was denied a goal when Scott Thomson hacked off the line at the last moment after Mols had turned the otherwise-impressive Andrius Skerla and fired a shot goalwards off goalkeeper Marco Ruitenbeek's underbelly.

Claudio Reyna fired just wide and Tugay smacked another perfectly-weighted long-ranger against the far post as the Pars rode their luck into the dressing room.

They could have been dead and buried by half-time, especially had not Skerla extended a long leg to nick the ball away from Mols in stoppage time when he was about to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

But up until they conceded the goal, Jimmy Calderwood's team had coped well and an early lead could, and perhaps should have been theirs when Nicholson motored through unchecked from Michel Doesburg's fourth-minute punt over the top.

But he failed to round Stefan Klos in the Rangers goal and apart from the occasional potshot, that was as good as it got for the visitors before the break.

The Pars had a good chance straight after the restart too thanks to Steven Crawford's neat flick that deceived Scott Wilson.

But substitute Steven Hampshire had only just come on and his first touch from the cross into a perfect penalty area position was too heavy and the chance was gone.

Rangers continued to create chances without actually converting them into the goals that would have made their afternoon far easier.

Miller forged the best for himself by shimmying past Jason Dair but goalkeeper Ruitenbeek was equal to his low shot.

Mols and Flo toiled to work up an understanding up front but for the most part they found themselves surrounded by defenders whenever the ball was at their feet and clear shooting chances rare.

And on the one occasion Rangers suddenlyn found themselves with three attacker facing just two defenders Flo somehow managed to find a Dunfermline man instead of the waiting Mols and Reyna.

Eventually though Rangers managed to turn their threats into the reality of a goal when Miller sent Mols clear a minute from time and he calmly strode on to slot past Ruitenbeek.

The second period was also far more bad-tempered than its predecessor, with Rossi booked for hacking Mols down from behind and Ricksen given the same punishment for a dreadful challenge on substitute Marinus Dijkhuizen which, had it been the other way round, would have provoked howls of outrage from the 46,000 home fans.

It wasn't half a nasty an encounter as the Aberdeen game, which had seen tow sent off, had been but it certainly had its moments.

Teams:

Rangers: Klos, Ricksen, Vidmar (Mols 40), Wilson, Numan, Reyna, Tugay, Konterman, Johnston, Miller (Hughes 89), Flo.

Subs Not Used: Christiansen, Malcolm, Carson.

Booked: Vidmar, Ricksen.

Goals: Tugay 28, Mols 89.

Dunfermline: Ruitenbeek, Skinner (Hampshire 46), Scott Thomson, Skerla, Rossi, Dair, Nicholson, Doesburg, Petrie (Mason 46), Bullen (Dijkhuizen 65), Crawford.

Subs Not Used: Scott Y Thomson, Boyle.

Booked: Scott Thomson, Rossi.

Att: 46,302

Ref: A Freeland (Scotland).