Judging by the look of them on the final whistle, Rangers people have got the party started already and you can hardly blame them. Their team looks immovable at the top of the league with a six-point advantage and a game in hand. This was their fourth consecutive victory over Celtic, a run which has seen Gordon Strachan's side score the princely total of no goals against them. For the side that cannot score there can be no hope anymore.

Walter Smith – he walks on water, you know – says it's not quite done but in Strachan's demeanour you got the impression that the Celtic manager feels it's as near to the end as makes no difference. This was the 13th SPL victory on the bounce for Rangers, their best winning run in the league since the 1972-73 season. Strachan must wonder what the hell he has to do to halt them. Can anything work at this stage?

He tried throwing his two big men at them yesterday but it didn't happen for him; Georgios Samaras and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink got little change out of the excellence of Davie Weir and Carlos Cuellar. It's not that Rangers were particularly good. They weren't. But they were dogged, they were organised and Celtic, for all their possession, couldn't get through them, couldn't even get close to getting through them. The best chance they had after falling behind was a 20-yard punt from the full-back Andreas Hinkel. Need we say more?

The winning goal when it came was like a rapier thrust into Celtic hearts, a rare moment of precision amid the rough and tumble. What we'd seen in the 44 minutes that went before Kevin Thomson's delightful breakthrough was a number of close-run things; a near post Lee McCulloch header that flashed wide, a snuffed-out Scott Brown chance, a dangerous header from Stephen McManus, another Brown effort, this one slapping off the outside of Allan McGregor's left-hand upright. All close but not close enough.

Then Thomson showed the rest of them how to execute. Strange that it should be him that led the way for he had never scored for Rangers before yesterday and nobody ever mistook him for a goals machine at Hibs either. His moment, therefore, was all the sweeter for being so rare. Barry Ferguson had set the ball rolling by touching it into Thomson, who played a delicious one-two with Jean-Claude Darcheville. The striker's beautifully judged return put Thomson clear and his finish was emphatic.

And there you had it. Almost an entire half of bluster and in five seconds, a killer strike.

Celtic resumed where they left off at the beginning of the second half, enjoying the majority of possession but unable to do anything significant with it. They huffed and puffed at the Rangers goal. There was nothing wrong with their effort. It was the inspiration that was missing. Nobody did it for them. Not Shunsuke Nakamura who once again disappointed on this stage, not Brown whose influence (if not his sense of refereeing injustice) waned as the game wore on, not Aiden McGeady who was put in his box for the day.

They needed something special because it was obvious Rangers were going to gift them nothing. This is a very tidy Rangers team. Incredibly well set up in defence, economical in midfield – Thomson was especially good before being stretchered off after injuring himself in a bizarre incident; he was recovering last night – and physical in all quarters. And when Celtic did a get a shot on goal, McGregor was a match for it. Hinkel let fly in the 65th minute and McGregor pulled off a flying save to keep it out and that, pretty much, was that.

The visitors were out of ideas long before the end. All those corners and free-kicks, all that energy and still they hadn't made the slightest dent in the Rangers morale. Even when things got a little tasty in the tackle, Rangers did not buckle. Naughty things began to happen. Boots were left in challenges and fellas squared up to each other. Balls were kicked away in anger and the yellow cards started to appear, slowly at first, then quick, quick, quick.

For Rangers, it all had the perfect ending. With Celtic heads sore from beating their heads on the Ibrox brick wall, Artur Boruc, the pantomime baddie, was booked for berating a linesman. He got it in the neck for that and the home fans repeated the dose soon after when the man they love to hate made a frightful hash of a clearance and dribbled it into touch. The cherry on top would have been a second goal but they were denied that, the Pole beating away Charlie Adam's late drive. Did it matter? Observing the delirium on the final whistle, not a lot. They think it's all over...

MAN OF THE MATCH

It was a complete performance from Kevin Thomson. He took his goal brilliantly and put in a monster shift in midfield. Jean-Claude Darcheville (pictured) deserves mention for his assist.

QUICK FACTS

Thomson again. He has scored four goals in senior football and three of them happen to have come against Celtic. And Walter Smith is unbeaten in his four Old Firm derbies against Gordon Strachan.

TALKING POINT

Gordon Strachan lauded his wide men, Aiden McGeady and Shunsuke Nakamura. Did he see something we didn't?