A late equaliser for United came from an unlikely source in Lee Wilkie, but manager Levein admitted to Setanta after the game that he was pleased with his side's efforts.

“Yeah, all credit to the players, behind twice and we’ve shown great courage to come back into the game and keep going,”  “I don’t think we played particularly well in the second half, but they kept going to the end and got a point because of it.”

United had some really good spells in the game especially in the first half and dominated Motherwell, but Levein felt the cutting edge was missing from their performance in the second 45 minutes.

He said: “It’s hard to describe to people just how difficult the conditions were today.

“I mean you sit at home watching the television and it was very bumpy, the wind was swirling all over the place and the players were trying to play football.

“It wasn’t conducive to that in all honesty, but we gave it our best shot, we have played much better than that this season as you are no doubt aware, but I’ve got to be happy being behind in the match away from home against a very good side and we come away with a point.

“It’s not a disaster.”

The goals conceded by United were sloppy, but the manner in which the second goal was lost confused Levein as every player was back inside the 18-yard box defending the set-piece from which Motherwell scored. However, instead of criticising his players, Levein praised Motherwell for their ingenuity and skill.

He added: “It’s good movement and he [Chris Porter] has lost Lee [Wilkie], but I think the ball would’ve gone in anyway because when you get a delivery like that it’s very difficult to keep that ball out of the net.

“If Chris had left that, I think it would still have gone in anyway - the delivery was so good.

“Rather than look for scapegoats in my team I would rather credit [Ross] McCormack with a good bit of skill.”

Wilkie, who is always a threat at set-pieces because of his height, scored his third goal for United and it was enough to guarantee a share of the spoils, but Levein admitted he was on the brink of replacing the player to change his formation and go for a more attack minded line-up, but that all changed when the former Dundee defender scored.

“Well we had opened the game up to go 4-4-2 with two wingers and the next step was to take off a centre-back and put on Mark de Vries and go with three up front,” Levein said. “I said to Peter Houston unless he scores here, he’s coming off, so I am kind of grateful that he did."

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