James Tavernier scored his 100th league goal for Rangers as they beat Dundee to overtake Celtic and move within four points of Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts.

Skipper Tavernier's second-half penalty and Danilo and Djeidi Gassama's late strikes ensured victory as Danny Rohl's side made it eight wins in a row in all competitions and took advantage of Hearts and Celtic's draw.

The hosts were awarded a spot-kick when Nico Raskin was caught by Ryan Astley after shooting over. The decision was upheld by the video assistant referee (VAR) and keeper Jon McCracken could only get a touch on Tavernier's shot.

Danilo's calm finish from the edge of the box came from a Dundee error and Gassama curled in a superb third.

Tochi Chukwuani, in his first Rangers start, had netted with a header in the first half but the effort was ruled offside. The midfielder later had a low effort turned away by McCracken, who also had to deal with strikes by Thelo Aasgaard and Tavernier.

Emmanuel Fernandez tried to take matters into his own hands with an acrobatic effort after chesting down, his overhead kick flying wide.

McCracken made a fine save to deny Mikey Moore after the latter's one-two with Bojan Miovski in what was increasingly a tense second period.

Dundee, who are ninth, could not find a telling moment in attack and were punished by Danilo after Joe Bevan's loose pass before a tired-looking defence were undone again by Gassama.

When Dundee last pitched up at Ibrox in August, Russell Martin was Rangers' head coach and a disciplined performance almost earned Steven Pressley's team a win.

Leading 1-0 in the closing stages, a late Tavernier penalty rescued a point for the hosts on that occasion.

Now with Rohl in the home dugout, Rangers found it similarly frustrating against the team from Dens Park.

January signing Andreas Skov Olsen made his debut but had little impact on the game, starting on the right of Rangers' attack. Chukwuani in his first start looked handy enough both in open play and at set-pieces.

And it took another Tavernier spot-kick to find a way through, with the right-back's overall Rangers goal tally increasing to 139.

While 3-0 may look like a comfortable win, both the Danilo and Gassama goals came in added time. Otherwise, Dundee would have been reflecting on a decent and stoic performance.

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl: "It was a big, big win. Not an easy one, exactly what we expected. It was a good start in the second half. We were clinical at the end.

"You felt that in the stadium after the whistle the stands are full now. Big, big positive energy. It feels great with eight wins. We need these wins. We have 15 games to go, still a long way."

Dundee manager Steven Pressley: "One-nil down with nearly 90 minutes on the clock, I was still disappointed because I genuinely believe we're a better team than we showed.

"There wasn't a lot in the game. Rangers deserved, on chances created, to win the game. We didn't create enough. With the ball, we showed some courage but not enough."

Rangers play their final Europa League fixture of the season away to Porto on Thursday (20:00 GMT), then visit Hibernian in the Premiership next Sunday, 1 February (14:00 GMT).

Dundee are away to St Mirren in the league on Saturday, 31 January (15:00).