UCD confirmed Biohemians' five points leadership of the Premier Division - able with the creditable scalp of early contenders Derry City at Belfield yesterday to move themselves up into the title chase.

With driving wind and rain not helping matters, the game failed to live up to the good sized crowd's expectation of providing a memorable spectacle between two of the country's best football sides. Derry manager Felix Healy, however, thought it was a good game. "There was more football played out there than in all the other games this weekend put together," he said.

He was also less than praiseworthy of a UCD side that matched Derry physically and played some fine football culminating in a superbly worked winning goal on 64 minutes.

The students' skipper Jason Colwell, the best midfielder on show, slid the ball through the inside left channel to Jason Sherlock who easily beat Paul Curran to cross for the unmarked Ciaran Kavanagh to sidefoot the ball past Tony O'Dowd from 10 yards.

"They had one shot on target and scored from it," continued Healy ungraciously and incorrectly. "Though we didn't play as well as we can, the best team lost. We showed we are a better team than them, but that doesn't win you matches. Their keeper made two good saves but we still didn't create enough chances from the possession we had," he added, before finishing on another curious note, "the fact that we tried to come and win the match cost us the match."

UCD were undoubtedly the better team in a drab first half creating far more problems in the Derry box than was the case at the other end.

It was 22 minutes before there was a shot on target a free kick from UCD's Declan Fitzgerald which caused O'Dowd a few problems.

O'Dowd did fumble an Eamonn McLoughlin free kick 15 minutes later and needed the help of Ritchie Purdy who hoofed the ball clear. Then, minutes before half time, Griffin almost caught O'Dowd out with a clever lob from out near the touchline which the Derry goalkeeper did well to palm over.

Derry did enjoy the better of much of the second half and things may have turned out differently if Garry Beckett had taken his chance to score within four minutes of the restart. Played in by Liam Coyle's neat flick, Beckett's well struck shot was superbly parried by UCD goalkeeper Seamus Kelly with James Keddy blazing the rebound over the crossbar.

Then on 76 minutes, chasing the game hard, once UCD had taken the lead, Kelly once more thwarted Derby's only other clear cut chance when saving brilliantly from Peter Hutton after substitute Ryan Coyle had played him in.

UCD manager Theo Dunne said: "Our intention was always to be up there near the top and we are good enough to do that.