RANGERS may not be able to stop Celtic making it eight top flight titles in a row. But they at least have broken Aberdeen’s four-year stranglehold on second spot.

That was the end result at Ibrox yesterday - after a pair of disputed second-half James Tavernier penalties allowed Steven Gerrard to savour a first victory over Derek McInnes’ side in Glasgow this season. The brace took the Rangers captain’s tally from 12 yards this season to a remarkable 14 and means that the Parkhead side’s champagne must remain on ice until next Saturday at the earliest.

Don Robertson wasn’t the first ref to have a tough time officiating these two rivals this season but it perhaps said it all that he was jeered off by the home fans at half time but able to walk off incognito after the final whistle. Aberdeen and their manager, on the other hand, protested bitterly at both awards, both given by the match official for incidents which sent Nikola Katic, the club’s giant Croatian defender, sprawling theatrically to the ground.

While Lewis Ferguson encouraged him enough to do so in the first instance by standing clumsily on his foot, the second – apparently caught by a flailing Andrew Considine arm in an aerial challenge – seemed soft indeed. Especially as the Aberdeen defender was shown his second yellow card of the match for the incident and will now join the lengthy list of Dons players missing his team’s next match, a potential Celtic title party at Pittodrie. In any case, Tavernier managed to banish the various permutations for the Premiership title race by beating Joe Lewis twice as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

There was a nice moment beforehand when both sets of fans shared a minute’s applause for the late Celtic legend Billy McNeill, a former manager of the visitors,, with big screens showing him with his great friend John Greig as the pair laid a wreath on the Ibrox centre circle to mark the 40th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster.

Considering that they couldn’t get a win here for decades, it was strange to see Aberdeen arriving in Govan seeking a remarkable fourth triumph against Rangers in Glasgow this season. Prior to yesterday, there was that League Cup semi-final at Hampden, a 1-0 league win in December and a Scottish Cup quarter final replay.

They arrived without key influences Gary Mackay-Steven, Niall McGinn and captain Graeme Shinnie, with Greg Stewart – another man linked with a move to Rangers this summer – on the bench until the last 15 minutes. And before long they would lose another winger in the form of Connor McLennan to a muscle tear. Throw in Considine’s dismissal and that is another two first team players they will be down at Pittodrie next week.

Alfredo Morelos was serving the fourth and final game of his recent ban but Steven Gerrard has used his suspension to find a new tactical blueprint, one he hopes can see them win on a more regular basis against opponents like this. He made just one change from the team which won their third match in a row against Hearts last weekend, restoring Ryan Kent at the expense of Daniel Candeias in one of the two roles charged with getting close to Jermain Defoe just off the front.

Tellingly, there was no sign of Eros Grezda, Borna Barisic, Kyle Lafferty or Lassana Coulibaly, a quartet of players who did little to please their manager by coming in 4-0 down at half time of a bounce match against Liverpool’s Under-23 side. If the manager’s comments yesterday are any guide, we won’t be seeing them in a Rangers jersey again.

McInnes has a knack of frustrating and slowing down Rangers and once again that was working a trick in the first half here. There was no urgency whatsoever at any Aberdeen re-start from the first minute onwards, with goalkeeper Joe Lewis getting the bird from the home support for taking an age to walk from one end of his six-yard box to the other to take a goal kick. Stoppages for McLennan’s injury didn’t help the flow of the game, nor did a lengthy break in play for a collision between Jermain Defoe and Lewis which Rangers were fortunate that the referee didn’t deem as deliberate.

With Steven Davis at the controls, the Ibrox side moved the ball well at points in that first half and only the excellence of Lewis stopped them racking up an early lead. When the Northern Irishman’s pass was dummied cleverly by Scott Arfield, Defoe was in on goal but Lewis produced a fine diving save to keep the scoresheet blank. Defoe saw a low left-foot shot deflected narrowly wide after another rapier pass from Davis, then Connor Goldson should have done better with a header. Aberdeen’s only attack of note came when Sam Cosgrove headed wide from a deep James Wilson free-kick.

There was a restlessness about this ground but the nerves were put at ease three minutes into the second period when Katic latched onto a loose ball in the box. Scott McKenna, arms aloft, didn’t make contact but Ferguson did. Tavernier swept the penalty home.

What might have been a fraught last ten minutes was taken out of the equation when Robertson interpreted an innocuous-looking aerial joust between Considine and Katic as the second penalty of the day. Into the opposite corner this time.

There was time for a sentimental bow from the bench for Lee Wallace before the end. Celtic may be able to pop those Premiership champagne corks at Pittodrie on Saturday, in a game where Aberdeen will be down to the bare bones. But Rangers are suddenly making them work for it.