St Patrick's Athletic wasted a glorious opportunity of moving four points clear of nearest challengers Cork City at the top of the Premier Division when held to scoreless draw by a resolute UCD side at Richmond Park yesterday.

While the champions had a monopoly on the attacking play, they could find no way past a UCD defence in which Clive Delaney and Aidan Lynch produced outstanding performances.

The 18-year-old Delaney, an outstanding prospect, came to the rescue on several occasions with timely interceptions to frustrate the shot-shy St Patrick's attack. So effective was the UCD rearguard that goalkeeper Barry Ryan had few shots worthy of the name to deal with during the 90 minutes.

But he had his share of luck just four minutes before the final whistle when substitute Martin Reilly raced onto a long clearance from Packie Lynch only to see his 25-yard effort rebound off the upright.

"This was an important point for us. Now I am confident that we can keep our place in the Premier Division," said UCD coach Theo Dunne.

His St Patrick's counterpart, Liam Buckley, was philosophical about the result in what was a dull encounter.

"We have played worse and won this season. I am not displeased with our performance as we did create a few chances and on another day might have won the game. The winning of the title is still in our own hands," he said. Without the injured Eddie Gormley and Ian Gilzean, St Patrick's gave only a second start in the league this season to Irish under-21 international midfielder Thomas Morgan with Leon Braithwaite partnering Trevor Molloy in attack.

A long clearance by Colin Hawkins almost let in Braithwaite after 24 minutes following an untypical error by Aidan Lynch, but the big striker's final touch let him down with goalkeeper Ryan able to collect his half-hit effort. Paul Osam and Martin Russell had long-range shots confidently held by the College keeper, before Hawkins shot over after a Trevor Croly cross was only partially cleared by the visitors' defence.

It was indicative of the lack of entertainment when one of the biggest cheers of the afternoon was reserved for the news that the Cork/Waterford game, which had kicked off an hour earlier, had ended in a scoreless draw. But that failed to inspire St Patrick's and UCD, in a rare moment of danger to the home defence, went close when Tommy McDonnell headed just over the bar. Martin Russell went close to unlocking the UCD defence on 77 minutes when he found the unmarked Croly, But the fullback's effort from 25 yards was just inches the wrong side of the upright.

Even then UCD might have sneaked a late winner when O'Byrne's effort from a narrow angle was just off target in the 88th minute with goalkeeper Trevor Wood out of position. But a draw was the right result.

St Patrick's Athletic: Wood; Croly, McGuinness, Lynch, Hawkins, Burke; Morgan, Osam, Russell; Braithwaite, Molloy. Sub: Reilly for Molloy (77 mins).

UCD: Ryan; McDonnell, Delaney, Lynch, Mahon; McLoughlin, Martyn, Kavanagh, Dunne; Fitzpatrick, O'Byrne, Subs: Bennis for Fitzpatrick (56 mins), Kilmurray for Dunne (83 mins).

Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).