Kris Boyd continued his impressive scoring form by grabbing the only goal of the game against Hibernian to hand Rangers a major boost ahead of next week's crucial Old Firm derby.

The 1-0 victory allowed Walter Smith's men to slash Celtic's lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League to a single point ahead of their arch-rivals' clash with Falkirk.

Hibs - the last Scottish team to beat Rangers at Ibrox back in October last year - would have been confident heading into this game after inflicting defeat on Celtic recently but there was to be no Old Firm double for the Edinburgh club.

Kyle Lafferty was rewarded for his equaliser at Dundee United last week with a starting berth for Rangers at the expense of Lee McCulloch, who was dropped to the bench.

Steven Fletcher made the starting line-up for Hibs despite hobbling out of last week's win over Hamilton with a shin injury.

He was passed fit for the trip to Glasgow, allowing boss Mixu Paatelainen to named an unchanged side.

Rangers could have been ahead with just four minutes on the clock when an attempted clearance from Hibs bounced off Pedro Mendes and fell to the feet of Boyd.

The forward bore down on goal and found himself one-on-one with Yves Ma-Kalambay but the goalkeeper won the battle by successfully blocking the point-blank shot.

Boyd then had a go from the edge of the box after meeting a Kenny Miller cutback but his thunderous effort was deflected over for a corner.

Steven Davis' resultant flag-kick found Kirk Broadfoot but the stand-in centre-half saw his header comfortably smothered by Ma-Kalambay.

Mendes then came close with a long-range drive which was deflected just inches past the goalkeeper's left-hand post.

Rangers continued to dominate possession and carve out the best of the chances but poor finishing let them down.

They threatened again when Lafferty set up a shot for Miller, only for the striker to flick over the crossbar under pressure from Rob Jones.

Mendes then saw an effort flash wide of target before Boyd nodded narrowly over as Rangers failed to convert their pressure into goals.

Hibs' only chance of the first half fell to Colin Nish on the stroke of half-time but his strike was poor and failed to trouble Allan McGregor in the Rangers goal.

The hosts appealed for handball shortly after the restart but Sol Bamba appeared to know little about the incident and referee Steve Conroy ignored the pleas for a penalty.

Barry Ferguson then had a go with a ferocious shot which fell across the face of goal and just past the upright as the Ibrox side attempted to end the stalemate with the fans becoming restless.

The breakthrough came after 61 minutes when Rangers' hard work eventually paid off.

A Davis corner was nodded on by Broadfoot to the unmarked Boyd at the far post and he claimed his 18th goal of the season when he delivered a lovely overhead kick into the bottom corner of the net.

This game could have been all but over as a contest with 10 minutes to go had Mendes been able to find the net with a powerful 45-yard drive.

But, once again, Ma-Kalambay was up to the task to pull off a superb save to prevent the Portuguese midfielder from adding his name to the scoresheet.

With time running out, Hibs piled forward in search of an equaliser and McGregor was called into action to punch a Fabian Yantorno free-kick to safety but Rangers held on for maximum points.

Teams:

Rangers: McGregor, Whittaker, Broadfoot, Weir, Papac, Davis, Mendes, Ferguson, Lafferty, Boyd, Miller (Novo 74).

Subs Not Used: Alexander, McCulloch, Beasley, Dailly, Niguez, Fleck.

Goals: Boyd 61.

Hibernian: Ma-Kalambay, van Zanten, Hogg, Jones, Murray, Rankin, Thicot (Yantorno 74), Bamba, O'Brien, Nish (Pinau 51), Fletcher.

Subs Not Used: McNeil, Keenan, Stevenson, Chisholm, Campbell.

Booked: van Zanten.

Att: 49,538

Ref: S Conroy (Scotland).