A furious Peter Houston said he had suffered an “embarrassing night” as Dundee United were given a footballing lesson by a rampant Rangers side.
The Tangerines travelled to Ibrox with February’s stunning Scottish Cup triumph fresh in their minds but they were blown away by a fired-up Rangers outfit who gained revenge in the most emphatic manner.
United still had faint hopes of overhauling Motherwell in third place in the SPL. However, those Champions League dreams were blown away by Ally McCoist’s side.
Houston ripped into his players, saying: ”That was an embarrassing night with the first-half performance. That wasn’t Dundee United out there tonight. We were slack, we never worked hard enough.
”The only thing we have done tonight is give hope to St Johnstone and Hearts. Congratulations to Motherwell though and good luck to them when they go into the Champions League qualifiers. But Dundee United never turned up tonight.
”Someone asked me about the 7-1 defeat when I first took over here but we played better that night than we did in this game. I can take no positives from the performance tonight.”
Houston’s pre-match message to his players had been to ”beware the wounded animal”. But his warning was not heeded, with United duly savaged by a Rangers side determined to bounce back from Sunday’s Old Firm defeat at Parkhead.
Houston’s men never recovered from an opening blitz in which Rangers rattled in three goals in 20 minutes, with Steven Whittaker opening the scoring and then Sone Aluko hitting a quickfire double.
Jamie Ness extended their lead early in the second half, with substitute Alejandro Bedoya putting the icing on the cake just before the end.
The result finally extinguished United’s slim hopes of overhauling Motherwell in third spot and means they now face a fight to hold on to fourth.
Photo by Lynne Cameron/PA Wire