GLASGOW, Scotland — Nacho Novo scored two early goals and Rangers beat Dundee United 3-1 on Saturday to keep the pressure on Celtic at the top of the Scottish league.
Jean-Claude Darcheville scored an injury-time third goal after Mark de Vries had replied for the Terrors in the 76th minute at Ibrox Park.
Although Celtic hosts Hibernian on Sunday, a loss for Gordon Strachan's team would mean that Rangers would be only one point behind with two games in hand.
Dundee United coach Craig Levein was furious with the performance of referee Mike McCurry for refusing his team a penalty and disallowing a goal, and he confronted the official after the game.
"I said: 'What's the point us turning up here, what's the point in us playing'?" Levein said. "If there's not a level playing field and we don't get the blatant, important decisions, what's the point in us turning up?
"Anybody who is of a fair mind who watched that today would see that we had no chance of winning that. We had a perfectly good goal chalked off, we had a blatant penalty and it was a sending-off. I think he knew he'd have to send the player off and he didn't want to do it, because (this game) meant so much to Rangers."
Levein called for the league to recruit overseas officials because Scottish referees found it difficult to give important decisions against Rangers and Celtic in front of their own fans.
"The sooner we get referees from another country coming in to referee some of the games (the better)," Levein said. "If Mike McCurry had given a penalty today, he'd have been lambasted (by the fans)."
Novo headed Rangers in front from Kevin Thomson's free kick in the seventh minute and he made it 2-0 with a volley in the 18th.
De Vries pulled a goal back when he fired home a cross from Danny Grainger. But Darcheville collected a pass from Barry Ferguson to make sure of the points with a header from 10 meters (yards).
Rangers, which faces Zenit St. Petersburg in Wednesday's UEFA Cup final and is also in the Scottish Cup final against Queen of the South, now has 82 points from 35 games. Celtic has 83 from 36.
In Saturday's other games, third-place Motherwell edged Aberdeen 2-1, Falkirk beat Inverness 2-1, Hearts lost 2-0 at home to next-to-last Kilmarnock, and last-place Gretna, already sure to be relegated, held St. Mirren 0-0.
