Rangers yesterday put their status as the probable winners of the Scottish Premier League at risk, but only for four hours. At the end of the night, the real losers appeared to be Celtic and their beleaguered manager John Barnes.

The champions left the door open at the top when they lost at Ibrox to Dundee in the afternoon, their first defeat in 13 league games. But then their closest challengers, on a Fir Park pitch that was barely playable after a day of rain and storms, lost 3-2 at Motherwell. The status quo remained to the sound of the dull thud of a nation throwing down its betting slips.

The repercussions will be felt hardest by Celtic, after failing to take advantage of the first signs of fallibility from Rangers this season. They remain four points behind Rangers, who have a match in hand, with another Old Firm collision looming.

Celtic were booed by their own fans after a poor second-half showing against Motherwell, which rather made nonsense of their manager's statement before the game: "All I can do is try and get a team out there playing football which wins matches," Barnes had said. "I really don't know if I'm going to get the time to do that." Motherwell have now beaten them twice in two months. They took the lead in the 10th minute with Ged Brannan's 20-yard curling free-kick but 11 minutes later Celtic were level when the unmarked Eyal Berkovic arrived late in the box to meet Vidar Riseth's cross, and Stephen Woods somehow managed to spill the ball back into his own net.

Celtic even took the lead with a Mark Viduka penalty after the Australian had been brought down by Shaun Teale but, importantly, Derek Townsley equalised on the stroke of half-time, turning inside Alan Stubbs and shooting emphatically beyond Jonathan Gould, low to his left.

The winning goal came from Don Goodman early in the second half, capitalising on more poor Celtic defending to fire past Gould's outstretched right hand from the edge of the box.

Celtic's opening had been set up earlier in the day by Rangers' defeat which began when Shaun McSkimming's corner was headed home in the 13th minute by the centre-half Craig Ireland, whose loan from Dunfermline may now become a permanent move.

The Dundee goalkeeper Rab Douglas then saved a penalty from Jorg Albertz, and although Rod Wallace did equalise Rangers were left with nowhere to go when, on his 22nd birthday, Gavin Rae struck the winner deep in stoppage time.

RANGERS 1; DUNDEE - 2

RANGERS: Myhre, Adamczuk (Vidmar 24), Moore (Kanchelskis 37), Amoruso, Numan, Reyna (Durie 63), Ferguson, Albertz, McCann, Wallace, Johansson. Subs Not Used: Nicholson, Brown. Booked: Johansson, McCann, Durie. Goals: Wallace 70.

DUNDEE: Douglas, Van Eijs, Smith, Tweed, Ireland, McSkimming, Boyack, Rae, Billio (Robertson 83), Annand, Grady (Bayne 87). Subs Not Used: Langfield, Sharp, Wilkie. Booked: Ireland, Billio, McSkimming, Van Eijs. Goals: Ireland 14, Rae 90.

Referee: Michael McCurry (Scotland).

MOTHERWELL - 3; CELTIC - 2

MOTHERWELL: Woods, Doesburg, Kemble, Teale, McMillan, Twaddle (Nevin 67), Valakari, Brannan, Townsley (Nicholas 80), Goodman, McCulloch (Davies 85). Subs Not Used: Thomas, Brown. Goals: Brannan 9, Townsley 44, Goodman 49.

CELTIC: Gould, McNamara, Tebily, Stubbs, Mjallby (Wieghorst 76), Mahe, Berkovic, Petrov, Riseth, Moravcik (Wright 64), Viduka. Subs Not Used: Kerr, Smith, Burchill. Booked: Stubbs. Goals: Berkovic 20, Viduka 26 pen. Att: 12,775

Referee: Jim McCluskey (Scotland).