By Sean Saranczuk
April 14 2003

Two goals each from Ronald de Boer and Shota Arveladze earned a 4-1 win at Dundee United. The victory enabled Rangers to take a step closer to the Scottish Premier League championship crown they surrendered to Celtic three seasons ago.

In the past, de Boer has been accused of taking it easy in games when he should be sweating as much as his less-gifted colleagues, but this time he showed himself to be the master of the not so true grit.

He alone seemed able to control a ball that seemed to bounce randomly off the limbs of other players and went in at half-time having stamped his mark on all three goals.

The first was his as he took down a Peter Lovenkrands cross from the left with ease in the 10th minute before producing an effortless low finish past Paul Gallacher.

The second followed seven minutes later with de Boer sending in a cross from the left that had too much pace for any defender to intercept but was perfect for Arveladze to head home from close range.

The third was all his as he lifted a pass from Mikel Arteta over Gallacher at his near post.

In the second half de Boer had been quiet for a while because of United's pressure but when he got back into the game it was again to United's cost.

He provided the perfect through-ball for Arveladze to latch on to in the area and the Georgian blasted it home off the underside of the crossbar.

United's consolation reply was just three minutes in arriving with Billy Dodds bundling the ball home from virtually on the line in the 71st minute after Gary Bollan had headed a corner goalwards and Lovenkrands had been second to the loose ball.