Advocaat delighted with victory

Amoruso and Ferguson celebrate the Italian's goal

Rangers manager Dick Advocaat showered praise on his players following their 5-1 thumping of top-of-the-table Celtic.

Advocaat and Rangers have been heavily criticised for the level of performance this season, but they turned it round in style against their bitter rivals.

Debutant Tore Andre Flo declared himself delighted to have scored on his Rangers debut - he got the crucial second goal.

Celtic boss Martin O'Neill acknowledged that his side had been out-played and expressed his disappointment at some poor defending.

Barry Ferguson was outstanding, the best player on the pitch

  Dick Advocaat

"It was a great result," said an obviously pleased Advocaat.

"Everyone was jumping on the club, but when everyone is fit we have an excellent squad and the players showed that today.

"We scored some good goals and defensively, the way they played against Sutton and Larsson, showed the quality there. They didn't give a chance away.

"Barry Ferguson was also outstanding, the best player on the pitch.

"I've always said 'Make a judgement at the end of the season'. But the league is still open."

Tore Andre Flo returns the applause of the crowd

Record signing Flo was on hand to knock in Rangers' second after Jorg Albertz had headed against the bar.

"The result was great and the atmosphere was unbelievable," said the Norwegian.

"At the beginning, it was a very high tempo, but it opened up in the second half and we played some good football.

"I was tired in periods, but all in all I felt fit and I think all of our players did."

Martin O'Neill was philosophical about his side's defeat, having watched Celtic annihilate Rangers earlier in the season.

Poor defending

"We didn't do well enough and Rangers deserved to win," said the Celtic boss.

"Having said that, at 1-1 in the second half, I don't think anyone would have forecast us conceding the way we did.

"We defended very poorly at corner kicks and Rangers, within a minute or two of us equalising, had scored again. Then we had a man sent off which made it very difficult."

O'Neill has maintained all along that Rangers are the benchmark for Celtic, and he underlined that again.

"Rangers are very strong but if you had asked me at the start of the season if after the second Old Firm game that we'd be in front of them, I'd have taken that.

"We've still got a lot to do - it's very hard to win a championship."