After Friday's announcement from Ebbe Skovdahl that he would be leaving as soon as a successor was found, the Dane would have had no thoughts of reversing his decision after watching this dire performance from his players.
Protesting that he could take his club no further without funding for new faces, the manager saw his team start brightly but slowly retreat into a shell and be very fortunate in the end to leave with a point.
Matching United in the opening period, the Dons brought panic to the Tangerines goal in the 21st minute.
Eric Deloumeaux's 20-yard swipe rebounded off Mark Wilson into the path of three Aberdeen strikers but between them and the on-rushing Paul Gallacher, Scott Michie contrived to flick the ball over from six yards.
Having survived this, United then gave away a needless penalty in the 27th minute.
Going nowhere Jim Lauchlan tugged Michie's shirt giving the referee no option but to award a penalty and a yellow card for the defender.
Phil McGuire stepped up to coolly drill the ball into the corner of the net.
With a sense of urgency, the home side appeared to equalise one minute later when Jim Hamilton netted but controversially the effort was disallowed for offside.
Not surprisingly the Dons' lead only lasted ten minutes.
Facing up to a deep cross, Russell Anderson recklessly pushed Hamilton for a clear penalty. The striker, who had never scored against his former team, easily sent David Preece the wrong way.
The second half resumed as the first had ended, with the play heading towards the Aberdeen goal but United found it difficult to break a stubborn defence.
Watching his team with its backs to the wall, Skovdahl brought on his three substitutes but this made little difference to the one-way traffic.
In the 83rd minute, Steven Thompson should have scored. Rising unmarked to meet Wilson's cross, he headed the ball down with power but straight at Preece.
The Terrors' frustration was completed on the stroke of full time. With the fans on their feet assured of a goal, Preece threw himself across goal to save