Rangers7–1Dundee Utd

United ended 2009 on a low note with a disastrous defensive display at Ibrox. Kris Boyd will rightly grab all the newspaper headlines – scoring five goals against United for the second time in his career sees him surpass Henrik Larsson as the SPL’s record goalscorer. But for United this match will reach the record books for all the wrong reasons.

Having survived an early scare when Novo should have scored, United seemed to have settled into the match as the twenty minute mark approached. Then a stray pass by Buaben allowed Boyd to play Miller into the box and while Dods touched the ball with his first tackle, his second challenge was a needless trip and Boyd dispatched the resulting penalty with ease.

Kovacevic was next to gift away possession leading to a foul by Gomis on Novo, 30 yards out. Davis tapped the ball to the side for Boyd to blast home, low to Weaver’s right. Kenneth cleared a Boyd volley off the line, but the hat-trick was delayed only until the 29th minute, the striker dispatching Miller’s low cross into the net from the edge of the six yard box.

United had chances to get back into the game towards the interval, but only a superb diving save from Weaver stopped Miller adding a fourth in first half stoppage time.

The game looked dead and buried – yet for the first 20 minutes of the second half United seriously threatened to retrieve the situation. After less than a minute Casalinuovo managed to squeeze the ball past McGregor to give the visitors some hope – which increased when Kenny Miller was sent off for having a kick at Dod’s face when both were grounded. United were suddenly in complete control and carved out a series of chances, the best falling to Casalinuovo and Kenneth, but none of which were taken.

The next goal would be crucial, and another terrible mistake saw ten man Rangers extend their lead. Dillon took too long to clear from inside his box allowing Whittaker to nip in and tuck the ball beyond Weaver – and put the game beyond United on 68 minutes. It was all downhill from there. Boyd tapped home Ranger’s fifth on 74 minutes after Weaver and Dods failed to deal with a Whittaker corner, and then the striker added his own fifth goal by rifling home from 14 yards after good work from Lafferty on the right.

The rout was complete five minutes from time as Bougherra ran through a cluster of tame challenges and dispatched an excellent finish low to Weaver’s left.

This was United’s heaviest league defeat for over fifty years, and an uncharacteristic way to end a year which has produced so many positives.