It was a game which United dominated throughout and they should have won by a significant margin.
They wasted their first chance in the sixth minute when Steven Robb delightfully chipped the ball to Noel Hunt. The little Irish striker knew he should have burst the net from only six yards but Colin Meldrum made the first of his many great saves as he turned the ball away.
As United tried to tame the horrendous conditions, a wonderful cross from Craig Conway led to another brilliant Meldrum save as he prevented Hunt's diving header from hitting the net.
As the visitors toiled, and very much reflecting their recent dip in form, Collin Samuel's cross was narrowly missed by Hunt and then the departing Trinidadian curled in a 20-yard shot which whizzed past the post.
After 36 minutes of this one-sided half, United contrived to miss yet another chance as Conway crashed the crossbar with a thunderous left-foot cracker from 12 yards out - it was a mystery why the ball did not go in as it appeared to come down over the line.
Into the second period and another departee, Lee Mair, went close with a near-post header which narrowly went over from Sean Dillon's cross.
Another fantastic save by Meldrum in the 55th minute prevented Mair from leaving with a goal as the keeper dived full length to claw the ball away.
Motherwell suffered a setback on the hour when they lost their wonder keeper Meldrum as he went off injured with a hip problem. But his replacement Graeme Smith took encouragement from a save from Dillon's shot in the 67th minute.
It took the visitors 78 minutes to create the first real chance of the half and it fell to Ross McCormack who struck a wicked ten-yard volley just over the bar.
But this was a rare occurrence for the visitors who showed all the signs that next year will be a struggle and they will be lucky to avoid relegation again.