If Dundee United are to remain as challengers for the coveted third place in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, and with it European football next season, they must start transforming slick performances into victories.

By common consent this was a game they should have won convincingly against a Falkirk side bereft of ideas and reduced for long spells to fending off one attack after another as the home side almost formed a queue to test Robert Olejnik, the 21-year-old Austrian, in the visitors’ goal.

He and his defensive colleagues had as busy an afternoon as they have had in a while and were the only Fallkirk players to pass muster against a United side brimming with confidence and producing attractive and entertaining football. Lee Wilkie’s assertion that his Tannadice colleagues controlled proceedings from start to finish would bring no dissenting voices.

“I thought we dominated the game,” the United captain said. “Sometimes a team will have a ten-minute spell when they get back into the game but from the first minute we were the better side. We created loads of chances and I suppose that’s a good thing.”

There will be disquiet, though, that the momentum United quickly gained at the beginning of the season has faltered and that their failure to find the net when they have enjoyed so much of the game, is not encouraging. “I think when you set the standards high at the start,” Wilkie added, “it is always difficult to maintain them.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a slump. We still managed to produce a good performance, it’s just that the result didn’t quite match it. Because we started so well this season things are always likely to fritter out towards the end.”

Falkirk’s approach looked more sprightly after the introduction of Russell Latapy for the second half as his experience and nous in midfield went some way to frustrating the free-flowing football of United’s largely youthful middle four.

That Falkirk never asked questions of Lukasz Zalska, United’s Polish goalkeeper, underlined how ineffective they were, with Craig Levein, his manager, feeling cheated out of valuable points. “Somebody stole my bike about four weeks ago,” he said, “and I felt terrible. It felt like it had been stolen again when we faced Falkirk. We were robbed and how we never won that game I’ll never know.”

From Brian Rice, the visitors’ assistant manager, there was no disagreement. “Our goalkeeper and the back four won the point for us,” he said. “I think they and Russell Latapy were worthy of pass marks. The others need to go and have a look at themselves.”

Both sides are at home in a league programme on Wednesday, United against St Mirren and Falkirk entertaining Hibernian. Levein will seek improvement from his strikers against a team that beat them in a Scottish Cup replay recently, while Falkirk will require more from a midfield that lacks punch and motivation.

“Any team that is coming in to form at this time of the season,” Levein said, “has a very good chance of finishing in a high position and I look at the team that played on Saturday and the players I had on the bench, and everybody is looking behind them, with the CIS Cup final coming up, wondering who’s going to be involved.”

It was a more positive message than the one from Rice. “People pay good money to come and watch us,” he said. “We practice all week to play a certain way; ball on the deck, pass and move. We had too many people who didn’t seem to be up for the battle.”

Dundee United (4-4-2): L Zaluska 7 – S Dillon 7, L Wilkie 8, D Dods 7, C Kalvenes 7 – P Buaben 7, M Kerr 7, D Swanson 6 (sub: W Flood, 68min 6), M Gomis 7 – N Hunt 7, M de Vries 7. Substitutes not used: E McLean, D Grainger, J O’Brien, D Robertson, C Conway, E Odhiambo. Booked: Swanson.

Falkirk (4-3-2-1): R Olejnk 8 – J Ross 8, D Barr 8, K Milne 8, T Scobbie 7 – K McBride 5, P Cregg 5, S Arfield 5 (sub: R Latapy, 46 7) – G Barrett 6, M Putinho 6 – W Clarke 5 (sub: D Robertson, 72 5). Substitutes not used: S Supple, S Bradley, G Aafjes, A Riera, M Stewart. Booked: Barrett, Clarke.