Rangers and Aberdeen added a new chapter to a 20-year story of on-pitch unpleasantness with the sendings off of Philip McGuire and Neil McCann in Wednesday's Scottish Premier League clash.

The 1-0 Rangers 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.

It seems a Rangers-Aberdeen fixture is a ticking time bomb as well as a football match and it was midway through the second half when this one exploded with the dismissal of first McGuire, the young Aberdeen defender, and then Scotland winger McCann. Both were red mist affairs of the highest order.

The signs that this was not destined to be a footballing classic were there from the start, a sluggish one from both sides.

Astonishingly it had taken 35 minutes for either side to plant a shot on target and when it did arrive it ended up in the back of the net.

Tugay was the man who scored it, latching 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.

It was his first goal since August 5 when he came off the bench to add to the tally in a 4-2 win at Kilmarnock.

This was a patched up Rangers side with the likes of 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 at all.

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.

Bert Konterman filled the midfield holding role vacated by Ferguson but showed he was willing to contribute at the other end too.

Sadly he shares Lorenzo Amoruso's 'gift' for shooting and one long-range effort ended up as far from Preece's goal as when it had reached the Dutchman.

This was also supposed to be the Fernando Ricksen-Darren Young rematch following the former player's controversial kung-fu kick on the latter at Pittodrie in November.

Ricksen, who was later to be booked for persistent fouling, did kick a Don but it was Derek Whyte who was hurt and little was made of the incident other than the awarding of a free-kick.

Ricksen also caught Rachid Belabed but it was two Aberdeen men whose names went in to referee John Rowbotham's book before the break - Thomas Solberg for body-checking McCann and Derek Young for upending Sergio Porrini.

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.

Virtually no decent football was forthcoming 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 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.

It was the latest chapter in a long, long story of on-field unpleasantness between the tow sides, dating back to when Alex Ferguson ruled the roost at Pittodrie.

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.

Teams:

Rangers: Klos, Porrini (Malcolm 89), Wilson, Vidmar, Numan, Ricksen, Konterman, Tugay, McCann, Flo, Miller (Johnston 53).

Subs Not Used: Christensen, Mols, Hughes.

Sent Off: McCann (69).

Booked: Tugay, McCann, Ricksen.

Goals: Tugay 34.

Aberdeen: Preece, McNaughton, Whyte, Solberg (McAllister 64), McGuire, Guntveit (Stavrum 62), Rowson, Derek Young, Belabed (Mackie 62), Darren Young, Winters.

Subs Not Used: Esson, Dow.

Sent Off: McGuire (68).

Booked: Solberg, Derek Young, Rowson, McGuire, McAllister.

Att: 45,621

Ref: J Rowbotham (Scotland).