Dundee United manager Peter Houston believes his men lacked a creative spark in the 0-0 draw with St Mirren.

The Tayside club struggled to create many chances against Danny Lennon’s team as they fell out of the SPL’s top six.

United have only won three league matches at Tannadice this term and Saturday proved another frustrating day for the Scotland assistant manager.

Houston said: "I would describe the match as brutal. We didn't create enough to win and I thought a draw was the fair result if I'm being honest.

"The goalkeepers didn't need their gloves today. I was happy with the back four and it was a good clean sheet but from middle to front I think we have better quality than that."

Houstonsaid he wanted his team to adopt the kind of direct approach which saw them beat St Johnstone 5-1 at McDiarmid Park the previous week.

He added: "We didn't show any quality today. We wanted five or six passes before putting it in the box. I always say to them to put it in there as we have Jon Daly and Johnny Russell to aim for.

"We saw last week against St Johnstone when we put the ball in the box they both scored headers. I think it was a disappointing performance from us today and after two good away results we wanted to build a bit of momentum at home.

"On today's performance we have a bit of work to do."

IN DETAIL

• Match report: Dundee United 0-0 St Mirren