CELTIC fought back brilliantly at Ibrox to claim their third victory over Rangers this season and surge 19 points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

The Parkhead club had fallen behind in the 13th minute of their first visit to the Govan stadium in over four years when Kenny Miller netted.

But Moussa Dembele scored his fifth goal of the 2016/17 campaign against Mark Warburton's side at a Scott Sinclair corner in the first half.

And Sinclair himself netted from close range in a second half which Brendan Rodgers's men had dominated.

The 2-1 victory means that Celtic, who still have a game in hand, have gone 24 games undefeated domestically in the first half of the season.

They defending Scottish champions have won 23 and drawn just one of their games so far and go into the three week winter break on a high.

The triumph also brought to an end a 15 month unbeaten run at Ibrox for Rangers who were last beaten at their own stadium by St. Johnstone in the League Cup in September last year.

Rangers were dealt a blow before kick-off when Lee Wallace, their captain and left back, was ruled out of the game after failing to recover from the hamstring strain he had picked up against Inverness Caledonian Thistle seven days earlier.

Clint Hill, who had hobbled off with a dead leg in the 1-1 draw with St. Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday evening, though, was passed fit and took his place in an unchanged starting line-up.

The Englishman took his place at the centre of a three man backline in a 3-5-2 formation with fellow centre backs Rob Kiernan and Danny Wilson to either side of him.

Brennd Rodgers made two changes to the Celtic side which had defeated Ross County 2-0 at Parkhead in midweek with Callum McGregor and Moussa Dembele replacing Ryan Christie and Leigh Griffiths respectively.

Rangers started brightly and forced Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon into making a save in the fifth minute. Barrie McKay cut inside from the left and fed Jason Holt who tried his luck from outside the penalty box.

The home team went in front in the 13th minute with a well-worked move. Josh Windass spotted James Tavernier charging into the opposition area and supplied him with a perfectly-weighted pass, the wing back squared the ball across goal and Miller netted from close range with the outside of his right foot.

Joe Garner had been injured in the build-up to his side’s goal and had to be stretchered off after receiving attention from Rangers medical staff on the pitch. The striker was replaced by Martyn Waghorn in the 16th minute.

Warburton’s side was visibly lifted by the strike and they controlled the game for much of the first half. Gordon had to palm another Tavernier cut back away from his goal in the 32nd minute to prevent his team from falling further behind.

However, Celtic hit their hosts on the counter attack after that near thing and Scott Sinclair was denied a goal by the right post after curling a ball beyond the clutches of Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham.

Rodgers’s side levelled a minute later at a corner. Sinclair flighted the ball in to Dembele, who was standing unmarked in the Rangers box, and the striker controlled the ball with his right foot before unleashing a powerful shot past Foderingham and into the roof of the net.

Warburton, though, was unhappy because Sinclair had looked several yards offside when he received the ball in the passage of play leading up to the corner.

The first half was typical Old Firm fare with not a huge amount of stylish football played, but rash tackles flying in all over the park. Celtic players Scott Brown and Jozo Simunovic were both shown yellow cards by referee Steven McLean in the first half for fouls on Tavernier and McKay respectively.

There was six minutes of time added on at the end of the first half and Foderingham did well to deny Sinclair before McLean brought an end to a frenetic first half.

Celtic started the second half as strongly as they had ended the first half and had Foderingham to thank for keeping them level. He gathered a mishit attempt from Dembele and denied James Forrest with a decent save in the space of two minutes.

Rangers were saved by the bar following another Celtic attack in the 55th minute. McGregor crossed the ball to Demeble whose down shot bounced off the turf and struck the woodwork before falling into the path of Sinclair who shot into the side netting.

McKay tried his luck from outside of the Celtic penalty box on the hour mark, but his shot lacked power and Gordon had little difficult saving.

His opposite number once again came to the rescue of the home team in the 63rd minute after Dembele had teed up Sinclair for a shot. His one-handed block thwarted yet another Celtic attack.

Warburton made a positive change two minutes later when he withdrew Windass, who had drifted out of the match, and put on Joe Dodoo. Rodgers replaced Forrest with Patrick Roberts shortly afterwards.

Gordon denied Rangers brilliantly at a corner in the 69th minute when Wilson got on the end of a McKay ball and directed a downward header at goal.

But Rangers could have no complaints when they fell behind a minute later given how much Celtic had dominated the second half of the match.

Roberts fed Armstrong who picked out Sinclair in space with a cross and the winger made no mistake form just a few yards out.

Miller hit te post after being supplied by Andy Halliday in the 80th minute, but it would have been an injustice if Rangers had levelled and earned a point.

Harry Forrester came on for Holt for Rangers and Nir Bitton replaced McGregor in the closing stages, but the game finished up 2-1.