Flood Didnt Dive, Says Craig Levein.

Dundee United were reduced to 10-men against Aberdeen on Saturday, after referee Mike Tumilty decided the on-loan Cardiff City midfielder had dived.

However, manager Craig Levein thinks the decision was harsh, because Flood didn`t deliberately try to gain an advantage by going to ground.

"There are situations where its not a dive or a foul," Levein told the BBC after the 1-0 win.

"Willo Flood was unbalanced, he knocked the ball past the player and he didn`t dive."

"He wasn`t in the penalty box, its not like we would have gained any advantage and he actually had a shot at goal."

"I feel for the referee, the pressure is on him to stamp out cheating and he`s come down hard (on Flood), but I don`t blame him."

"This is an issue that has been in the spot light of the media for a while, ever since Gordon Smith suggested that we try to stamp it out."

"That said, I want to stress that I am 100% behind stamping out diving in football, I`d like to make that clear."

Although, Dundee United managed to recover from going down to 10-men and secured a late victory over Jimmy Calderwood`s side.

A 90th minute strike from youngster David Robertson gave Craig Levein`s side their first win on the opening day of season, since beating Dundee 2-1 at Tannadice in 1999.