A stunning late save from their goalkeeper Barry Ryan and the width of his left-hand post earned UCD a point from a match that never lived up to its billing at Tolka Park last night.
Ryan produced an acrobatic save to tip over an audacious 40 yard shot from Carel van der Velden six minutes from time as UCD held on for a draw.
Earlier on 54 minutes, Declan Geoghegan did beat Ryan with a 25 yard left-foot drive only to see his effort come back off the keeper's left-hand post as the players tried to make the game come alive. A dreadfully disjointed performance from Shelbourne was the main ingredient in a hugely disappointing first-half that excited few spectators. UCD did create two reasonable chances aided, it must be said, by some sloppy defending. Mick O'Byrne's straightforward ball forward on 15 minutes found Brian Mooney who got right under his attempted lob which ballooned high over the crossbar.
Two minutes later an Eoin Bennis throw was completely missed by a defender to put O'Byrne in on goal. Shelbourne goalkeeper Steve Williams stood his ground well and parried O'Byrne's albeit tame chip with Pat Scully getting across to block O'Byrne's follow up out for a corner.
Shelbourne: Williams; Heary, Scully, McCarthy, D. Geoghegan; D Baker, van der Velden, Fenlon, R Baker; Haylock, S. Geoghegan. Subs: Byrne for D Baker (60 mins), Powell for Haylock (76 mins).
UCD: Ryan; McDonnell, Delaney, Lynch, Mahon; Mooney, Kavanagh, Martyn, Bennis; O'Byrne, Hanrahan. Subs: Kilmurray for Kavanagh (26 mins.), McLoughlin for McDonnell (half-time).
Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)