LEAGUE OF IRELAND St Patrick's Athletic 1 Cork City 1 -FOR THE last months of Jeff Kenna's reign at Richmond Park, St Patrick's Athletic had established a pattern of winning every third league game while losing the other two.

Having been beaten by Shamrock Rovers and Galway United recently, a draw was probably not the impact Pete Mahon had hoped to have on his new team.

For City, though, the result was not bad in the context of a day that had started with their bus driver refusing to set off for Dublin until he was paid the €2,100 his company was owed and captain Dan Murray having to go on local radio to raise the money.

As tends to be the case with City, the cash was found at the 11th hour and the players eventually hit the road. Barely off the bus before they had to play, City even managed to lead their hosts for a spell in the first half, but after Greg O’Halloran was sent off for a pointless handball on the line and the locals had levelled from the penalty spot, they did well to hang on for 50 minutes for the point.

Assuming their transport hung around to take them home again, the journey home must have been more pleasant than the one up.

On Wednesday, Mahon had identified the elimination of sloppy defending as a key element in the campaign to improve his side’s results at home. But Rome, as they say, wasn’t built in a day, and the hosts took just nine minutes to handicap themselves in his first match in charge.

Enda Stevens was the guilty party, as the young full back foolishly attempted a first-time ball to Darragh Ryan under pressure from Davin O’Neill, who smothered the pass, got a little lucky with the way the ball ran for him and then finished well to the bottom left corner of the net.

Unlike many other visitors to Richmond Park this year, Cork were in generous mood at the back and when Ryan Guy, not for the first time, prompted uncertainty around the visitors’ goalmouth with a cross from the right, they gave back in some style.

That Stuart Byrne was allowed a header that looked certain to produce an equaliser was bad enough, but O’Halloran then compounded the cock-up by halting the ball’s progress with an outstretched arm. The defender started to walk almost before Tom Connolly had fetched his red card, and Mark Quigley then stepped up to score.

Cork dug in for a draw with determination, though they were lucky on a few occasions to survive the pressure exerted by a home side that showed a capacity to retain possession that has previously been markedly absent this season. The hosts squandered a couple of frees from decent positions and went closest from corners early in the second period.

Evidence that Mahon had brought a bit of luck with him then came in the form of a Billy Dennehy miss after Brendan Clarke had tamely attempted to punch a Joe Gamble corner clear, only to miss completely, an error that, happily for the goalkeeper, took his opponent by surprise.

Late on, the Dubliners pressed for a winner but scarcely forced Mark McNulty into a save. Mahon’s task, it would seem, will not be restricted to getting a little bit more from his defenders.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Clarke; Lynch, Gavin, Haverty (Maher, 28 min), Stevens; Guy, Dempsey, Byrne, D Ryan (B Ryan, 73 min); Quigley, O'Brien.

CORK CITY:McNulty; Mulcahy, O'Halloran, Long, Murphy; O'Neill, Lordan, Gamble, Dennehy; Silagailis (Duggan, 44, min), Cambridge (Kudozovic, 73 min).

Referee:T Connolly (Dublin).