Rangers held at Dundee United

Christian Kalvenes, Noel Hunt and an own goal from Carlos Cuellar provided the home side with the lead on three occasions but they were pegged back each time by Rangers in a thrilling contest.

David Weir, Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd were all on the scoresheet but the SPL leaders failed to find the winning goal that would allow them to take a major leap towards wrapping up the title.

Events at Celtic Park on Saturday had a major impact on both teams involved here, United's hopes of finishing third being dealt a blow by Motherwell's win and Rangers expected to wrap up the championship sooner rather than later after Celtic lost further ground in the title race.

The home side took the lead with 37 minutes gone. Willo Flood's free-kick picked out Darren Dods, whose header was blocked at close range by Rangers keeper Allan McGregor. The ball broke to Kalvenes who cracked a shot off the post before bundling home at the second attempt.

The celebrations were short-lived when Rangers restored parity a minute from half-time when Boyd was fouled just outside the box. Barry Ferguson stepped up for the free-kick and Weir rose above everyone else to nod into the top left corner.

United were back in front within six minutes of the restart. Kalvenes provided the cross and Sean Dillon lofted the ball over McGregor where Hunt was waiting to nod home.

Boyd then squandered a great chance to level almost immediately when he narrowly failed to connect with a Ferguson ball a few yards out with the gaping net at his mercy. The honours went to Novo instead when he pounced on a through ball from Lee McCulloch and squeezed between Kalvenes and Dods before rounding the goalkeeper and slotting home with 58 minutes on the clock.

There were more twists and turns to come. A Dillon cross from the right was missed by McGregor and Cuellar's despairing attempts to clear the danger saw the centre-half succeed only in diverting the ball over the line instead after 65 minutes.

Rangers levelled again two minutes later when Boyd seized upon a poor pass-back from Flood and rifled home in off the goalkeeper's left-hand post.