This was potential leg-breaking stuff at Tannadice. The conditions on Tayside were atrocious yesterday and this game had become increasingly farcical before the referee, Mike Tumilty, abandoned proceedings at half-time.

That outcome left Dundee United feeling more pleased than Rangers, who were denied the advantage of taking Steven Davis’s excellently taken goal into the second half, though the right decision was made to abandon the match.

The rain had been falling almost incessantly on Tayside for 36 hours, which in one sense made it a minor miracle that the game got under way in the first place. Danny Cadamarteri, a Dundee United substitute, nearly injured himself while slipping during the pre-match warm-up, and it wasn’t long before we were aware that Tumilty would have a decision to make about the conditions.

On at least two or three occasions players launched into slide-tackles and ended up travelling six or seven yards from where the initial challenge had been made. In the first half Allan McGregor, the Rangers goalkeeper, also dropped the ball in a gathering pool of water in his area, whereupon a mêlée of sliding players joined in. The referee decided that the famous dip in the Tannadice pitch was allowing water to gather in that goalmouth, and that any further action beyond half-time would be impossible.

Ironically, when Tumilty informed both dressing rooms at the break that the game would have to be stopped, it was a disconsolate-looking Ally McCoist, the Rangers assistant manager, who appeared from the mouth of the tunnel to inspect the surface around the goalmouth. Fifteen years ago, in similar conditions, McCoist accidentally fractured the cheekbone of Theo Snelders, the Aberdeen goalkeeper, in an equally waterlogged goal area.

Rangers, despite their lead, accepted the decision yesterday with equanimity. When the Tannoy announcer relayed the referee’s decision to the 10,000 crowd, the United fans were hooting loudly, their post-match pubs being just around the corner. For the large Rangers travelling support, the moment was harder to take, and they disconsolately trudged out of Tannadice and through the rain back to their buses and cars. Having said that, supporters of both clubs could see that the game was becoming a lottery.

Given the conditions, Davis had taken his opening goal after 28 minutes with some aplomb. United had attempted to clear the ball from their area, only to find Sasa Papac, whose deftly-struck cross swept over to the far post with United’s emerging defence trying to play offside. The pace and curve of Papac’s delivery proved perfect for Davis, who, arriving at the back post, met the ball sweetly to drive it first-time past Nicky Weaver from a tight angle.

Yet United at that stage felt hard done by, given that Mickael Kovacevic had already struck the bar, Damian Casalinuovo had headed just wide, and, worst of all, Prince Buaben had somehow scooped Jennison Myrie-Williams’s cut-back over McGregor’s bar from 12 yards.

The bar would rescue Rangers again before half-time. In the sopping conditions Craig Conway was chopped down by Danny Wilson, and Paul Dixon stepped up to lash a 30-yard free kick against McGregor’s woodwork, with the Rangers goalkeeper peering up at it. Moments later, as the game swung back United’s way, McGregor had clutched a fierce 25-yard drive from Buaben.

Dundee United (4-4-2): N Weaver 6 — M Kovacevic 7, G Kenneth 6, D Dods 5, P Dixon 5 — J Myrie-Williams 6, P Buaben 7, M Gomis 7, C Conway 7 — D Goodwillie 5, D Casalinuovo 5. Substitutes not used: S Banks, S Dillon, D Cadamarteri, D Swanson, D Robertson, M Fotheringham, Andis Shala.

Rangers (4-4-2): A McGregor 7 — S Whittaker 6, D Weir 7, D Wilson 7, S Papac 5 — S Naismith 5, S Davis 7, K Thomson 6, K Lafferty 5 — K Miller 5, K Boyd 4. Substitutes not used: N Alexander, N Novo, J Rothen, D Beasley, S Smith, J Fleck, J McMillan.

Referee: M Tumilty. Attendance: N/A