PETER GRANT believes Robbie Neilson and his Dundee United side will be happy with the point they took away from the Indodrill Stadium last Friday, February 14.

Dundee United came into the game sitting comfortably at the top of the table and Alloa looked to use their game in hand on bottom-placed Partick Thistle to extend the gap between the sides.

Neilson, in his post-match comments, said he was disappointed not to take three points and went on to blame the artificial surface for his side's poor final ball.

After claiming Grant would be the happier of the two managers with the share of the spoils, the home side's gaffer point-blank disagreed.

He said: "I think he'll be happy with a point; he proved that with his team selection.

"He was making sure he wasn't getting beat, [it's] unusual when you're 17 or 18 points clear to play with a defensive team so I think he'll be delighted with the point.

"I think they gave us the utmost respect with the three central midfield players that they did play."

On a windy Valentine's night, a lack of quality from both sides in the final third saw each team take a point; however, the best chance of the match fell to Alloa's Ben Stirling who saw his header cleared off the line.

The league's top scorer Lawrence Shankland had a quiet game as the Wasps' backline dealt with him comfortably throughout the match and also dealt with the movement of Tangerine debutant Rakish Bingham.

Grant said: "The guts and determination [the team] showed is what it takes to win games of football and get points in games of football and one thing I've always said about these guys is they leave everything on the football pitch and they done that again this evening."

Despite losing some big names to injuries, Grant was pleased with the younger players who kept the visitors quiet.

He continued: "We've had three 17-year-olds and a goalkeeper on the bench at times this season because of the personnel we've lost and it's been big, big players for long periods of time.

"Young ones like Ben Stirling, Lee Connolly, Robbie Deas is a young man and I think they've been outstanding and I'm really enjoying working with them.

"They're showing the character that we need, young Kieran Wright has came in and been excellent, Rangers should be very proud of him and we're very lucky we've got him."

Looking back on the match, Grant added: "We probably let too many crosses in and I felt that put us under a bit of pressure, we were a bit concerned because I felt that was the same at Tannadice.

"The only thing that disappointed me is I thought we didn't take enough care when we had simple passes and I thought there was opportunities to break quickly on so many occasions and we turned over the first pass which is unlike us so that is probably my one criticism.

"Some of our boys are coming in and playing their first game, second game, third game, whatever it is at this level, so I'm absolutely delighted with them and I thought we thoroughly deserved the point."