DUNDEE UNITED will head back to Glasgow on Wednesday with a heavy feeling of injustice in their kit bag.

The League Cup final defeat to Celtic saw Sean Dillon sent off, butUnited boss Jackie McNamara had no issue with this decision.

But he is upset the challenge by Virgil van Dijk which caused the shin injury which forced his skipper off for seven minutes to have stitches inserted - during which time Celtic scored their opening goal - was deemed a throw-in to Celtic.

McNamara was also unhappy no penalty was awarded by referee Bobby Madden - who was praised for his performance by Ronny Deila - when Ryan Dow went down in the box under a challenge from Scott Brown.

The former Celtic defender said: "I feel frustrated and disappointed, but I'm proud of how the players responded. I thought a lot of things went against us.

"But we stuck to the task and went right to the end, despite the disappointments and setbacks in the game."

McNamara had no qualms about Madden's decision to award a spot-kick when James Forrest was knocked over by Paul Dixon, but continued: "I feel we should have had a penalty. It looked like a penalty. I'd like to see it again. The referee was very slow to make a decision, or not make a decision. But in Celtic's case, he was very quick to point to the spot."

In hindsight, McNamara wishes he had been as quick to make a call when Dillon had to go off for treatment. Eventually, he got Blair Spittal stripped to replace the defender, but Dillon re-merged to reclaim his place.

In his absence, Kris Commons opened the scoring, and McNamara explained: "I was about to make the change because it seemed to be taking too long. It proved costly for us.

"I'd like to see the challenge (by Van Dijk on Dillon) again that caused the damage to his leg to see if it was fair. Celtic ended up getting a throw-in from it. Sean has got a bad gash on his shin.

"For the red card, it was Sean's momentum and pace. I don't think he has gone in to cause damage. But he's given the ref a decision to make and we know what happened."