Houston hopes to learn from heavy defeat

It was a tall order for United following its 2-2 draw at Tannadice in the first leg and it became taller when the home side got off to the perfect start in the second minute when Marko Lomic swung a low cross in from the left for Igor Semshov to rifle past United's keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak.

Alexsandr Kokorin headed in the second after 22 minutes before midfielder Artur Yusupov ended any Tayside hopes before the break when he raced clear of the visiting defence to slip the ball past Cierzniak.

Two late goals by substitute Aleksandr Sapeta completed a miserable night for the visitor but Houston is keen to keep his squad intact and return to European football all the better after the humbling experience.

He said: "They were just too strong for us physically and I was disappointed about the first half when we didn't believe in ourselves. We should have done better than we did.

"I was very frustrated by the fact that the players stood in their own box and watched the cross coming in and I think it was due to the fact that we are naive and inexperienced in Europe.

"But I have to put things into perspective with the wealth and experience of the Russian side. We have a very, very young team.

"If we can keep this team together for the next couple of years we will be able to build and learn from the European experience.''

United was encouraged when Dinamo remained at the bottom of the Russian Premier League after losing 4-0 to city rival Spartak on the weekend, a result which ended Sergei Silkin's tenure as boss with Dmitri Khokhlov taking over as caretaker manager.

Houston admitted the change of manager had worked in the Russian side's favour.

He said: "I said it works both ways from a change of manager and Dinamo played well for their new coach."