Stephen Baxter's side bossed the opening exchanges and might well have opened the scoring as early as early as the fourth minute when a quickly taken free kick down the left saw Ciaran Gargan's cross diverted onto the crossbar by David Larmour and from the follow-up, Chris Morrow fired over when well-placed.

Another chance followed on 11 minutes when Morrow laid the ball off into the path of Darren Stirling but his first time effort went narrowly wide.

United's first effort of note didn't arrive until the 34th minute. Craig McClean took a throw-in on the left which was helped on by Paul Brown into the path of Lee Patrick. The midfielder steadied himself and tried to curl a measured shot into the far corner but his carefully placed effort went just the wrong side of the post.

Home keeper Paul Murphy was called into action again before the break when he kept out Stirling's mis-hit effort at full stretch and the keeper pulled off another great save on 66 minutes, keeping out Larmour's header from sub Eamon McAllister's cross.

The second half grew progressively more scrappy and came to the boil on 76 minutes. Brown and defender Barry Spence tangled as they contested a loose ball and as the pair attempted to free themselves, Spence ended up on the ground.

Referee Paddy McFadden had his attention drawn to the incident by assistant David Redfern and brandished a red card, to the disbelief of the home fans.