Houston was delighted with his side's win over Aberdeen

Dundee United manager Peter Houston is likely to make substantial changes for Thursday's match against Hamilton despite their 3-1 win over Aberdeen.

Accies visit Tannadice on Thursday before United entertain Motherwell in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

"We'll have to have a look at it and I think we'll need to use our full squad," said Houston.

"The Cup tie means a lot to us, both on and off the park - financially, but also we want to reach a semi-final."

United's need for points in the Scottish Premier League was eased by a win over the Dons that lifted them above Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Motherwell into fifth place with three games in hand over them both.

I thought it was a very complete performance by Dundee United Dundee United manger Peter Houston

"We want the points and we need the points to make sure we consolidate in a top-six finish," said Houston.

"Hopefully (Paul) Dixon will be back from a bug he got this morning, sickness and diarrhoea, which was a blow.

"I've not got a massive amount of players to change it that much, but certainly we'll have to use in the next couple of days the full squad."

United took a two-goal half-time lead as Barry Douglas headed in a corner from Craig Conway, who struck the second.

Aberdeen substitute Josh Magennis pulled a goal back after 51 minutes, but Danny Swanson struck a superb third for United nine minutes later and Houston was pleased with the performance.

"I thought we were comfortable winners," he said. "I thought it was a very complete performance by Dundee United.

"I've always said if I can get Conway and Swanson on the park at the same time, we'll cause teams problems and we did cause them problems."

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