Craig Levein has warned his players that they cannot afford to underestimate Hamilton when they meet in their opening game of the season.

We meet on August 11 at New Douglas Park and Levein knows that the Lanarkshire side will be desperate to show they are no pushovers.

“I believe this is as hard a fixture as we could have been given and if any of my boys go into the game believing we’ll win just because we are up against a newly promoted team, they are in for a rude awakening,” Levein told the Daily Record.

“I am concerned about the task facing us when we get to New Douglas Park because I believe Billy Reid has an excellent team that will require us to be at our best to beat.

“They’ve been together a few years now and know each other and their system inside out. More than that, they have genuine quality in their ranks.”

United finished last season in fifth place and Levein feels his squad is stronger than last year despite the loss of top scorer Noel Hunt.

Levein said: “I think we are in better shape to finish third this season than we were at this stage last term when Noel Hunt was our only fit striker going into the campaign.

“Noel has gone now but we have Jon Daly, Warren Feeney, Andis Shala and Francisco Sandaza available to us, even if big Francisco is a couple of weeks behind the rest in fitness terms having only stopped playing for his last club on June 18.”

He added: “All in all I feel we are better equipped to make a challenge but time will tell.

“One thing is for sure, we need to hit the ground running and if we look upon Hamilton as an easy touch that won’t happen.”