St Patrick's caught napping late on

League of Ireland/UCD 2 St Patrick's Athletic 2:They may still be league leaders this morning but two goals conceded late on last night against a UCD side who have now gone eight games without defeat underlined the extent to which St Patrick's Athletic have lost the momentum built up over the opening weeks of this new league season.

Then, it seemed, they could do no wrong, with John McDonnell's side appearing to score for fun as they swept past opponents. Now, after a series of disappointing results, they must prepare for next week's top-of-the-table encounter with Drogheda United wondering quite how it is that their form has unravelled so quickly.

On the face of it, this looked like a rather inopportune time for an out of sorts side with title pretensions to visit UCD. The students rarely produce runs like the one they have been on for the last month and having rather comfortably held Bohemians away last week there must have been some confidence within the home camp that they could cause McDonnell's side problems too.

The main problem encountered by the visitors in recent weeks, however, has been the extent to which their scoring had dried up and after Mark Quigley, apparently the object of Dennis Wise's attention from the stand, and Gary O'Neill had each contributed to a two-goal advantage, the Inchicore outfit looked a safe bet to take all three points.

Late on, though, they wobbled badly in defence and after one of the home side's three substitutes, Timmy Purcell, marked his arrival with what looked no more than a consolation goal four minutes from time another, Paul Byrne, capitalised on some terribly uncertain play by the back four.

A free kick that should have been cleared easily enough was allowed to bounce around the area and after one close shave, the young striker pounced from close range to grab his side's equaliser.

Early on it had been an even contest, although the loss of Tony McDonnell to injury was a blow to the home side from which they struggled to recover. Joseph Ndo limped out of the game not long after that and the visitors were able to send on John Frost as a replacement and then the first of several tactical reorganisations only seem to highlight the greater depth available to the Inchicore outfit.

For all the quality at his disposal, though, and the many different ways in which McDonnell chooses to employ it these days, the St Patrick's manager has been clear on his striking preferences, with Quigley and O'Neill handed the task of delivering the bulk of the team's goals.

Though he has played well enough, O'Neill has struggled to find the net with any sort of regularity and his only league goal prior to last night was from the penalty spot a couple of weeks back.

It's possible the resulting loss of confidence was behind his miss early on after a neat exchange with Quigley but when his team-mate opened the scoring with a cracking long range effort nine minutes before the break, the visitors still appeared to be well on their way to a win.

Both goalkeepers produced good saves in the exchanges that followed but St Patrick's must have thought they had made the points safe 13 minutes into the second period when Quigley did the tough stuff down the left by beating two defenders and then crossing low for O'Neill, who got between Ian Bermingham and Derek Dole, to sidefoot home from six yards.

The students have shown new levels of resilience in recent weeks, and it was evident in abundance here as they refused to give up on what looked a lost cause.

Purcell's goal came four minutes from time after which a Byrne volley flew narrowly over the target.

In the stand the supporters, who had made the short journey from Inchicore, breathed a sigh of relief but it was to be short-lived as Byrne returned to level things up and make it three defeats and a draw from five league and cup games for John McDonnell's side in recent weeks.

UCD:Gregg; Mahon, McNally, Kenna, Bermingham; C Byrne, McFaul, McDonnell (Crowley, 18 mins), Bolger (P Byrne, 53 mins), Doyle (Purcell, 78 mins); Sammon.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Ryan; C Foley, S Quigley (Rooney, 82 mins), Maguire; S Brennan; Murphy, Fahey, Ndo (Frost, 28 mins), O'Connor; O'Neill (Guy, 78 mins), M Quigley.

Referee: R Winter(Dublin).

•Sligo Rovers are without a string of first-team players for this evening's visit by Cork City to the Showgrounds. Manager Paul Cook must cope without Paiotr Bajdziak, Conor O'Grady, Gary Curran, Brian Cash, Jason McCartney and Séamus Coleman as he tries to engineer the club's first win in seven games.

City, meanwhile, have a virtually a full squad to choose from with just Seán Kelly missing due to a fractured cheekbone.