In discussing his keeper Fraser Forster's loan spell at Celtic this season, the Newcastle boss revealed he was unimpressed with the standard of football north of the border.

Pardew was quoted as saying: "I think he's coming back to a completely different level of football, I'll tell you that now.

"We have watched that division and watched him all year.

"We've been disappointed with the quality of the games, other than the occasional Rangers versus Celtic game, and even some of those have been poor."

However, Dundee United chief Houston, who is on international duty as assistant boss with Scotland for the Carling Nations Cup games against Wales and Republic of Ireland this week, said: "It's not even worth commenting on it because we have international players playing in the SPL who could walk in to the Newcastle team.

"They play at a very high level in European football, on a number of occasions as well.

"If you take Rangers for instance, their runs in Europe in the last couple of years have been fantastic so that's them playing at a high level and in the SPL.

"Scott Brown has played in the Champions League (for Celtic) as well.

"Alan is entitled to his opinion but it is not something with which I agree."