MICHAEL O'DONNELL salvaged a point for UCD at Richmond Park last night with an equaliser two minutes from time after St Patrick's had wasted a host of second-half chances.

O'Donnell availed of a double error in the St Patrick's defence to give UCD only their third point from their last eight games.

Eamonn McLoughlin's cross from the right seemed innocent enough, but St Patrick's skipper, John McDonnell, allowed the ball to bounce over him and with goalkeeper Brian McKenna hesitating, the UCD winger toe poked the ball, over him and into the net.

It was a sickening blow for St Patrick's, who had dominated the second half. But they failed to kill off UCD who, in fairness, always looked dangerous on the break.

After a nondescript first half, St Patrick's striker Ricky O'Flaherty finally brought the game to life with a spectacular lead goal nine minutes into the second-half. Trevor Croly's cross was neatly flicked on by Paul Osam for O'Flaherty to blast the ball home from 12 yards with a crisply-struck volley.

Within two minutes O'Flaherty had a gilt-edged chance to add a second when once more set up by Osam, but he blasted the ball over the crossbar from 15 yards when under no pressure at all.

Substitute Jason Byrne subsequently also wasted two clear chances when through one-on-one with UCD goalkeeper, Seamus Kelly, before O'Donnell rescued UCD thanks to St Patrick's early Christmas present.

Eddie Gormley made his return as a late substitute and he almost restored St Patrick's lead with an audacious shot straight from the kick-off which Kelly had to tip over.

. Paul Devlin emerged as the hero as Birmingham snatched a last-gasp equaliser to make it 1-1 against relegation haunted Southend who finally cracked City's tough-nut defence in last night's English League Division One game.

Thrown on as an 85th minute substitute, Devlin came to the visitor's rescue with just two minutes remaining when he fastened onto a pass by Kerry Cooke, on loan from Manchester United, before finding the net with a low shot in off a post.

It was just reward after Trevor Francis' side had bravely battled after going behind in the 63rd minute conceding their first goal for 557 minutes

However, Southend, looking anything but a side at the wrong end of the table, grabbed a deserved lead when Paul Williams launched himself into a diving, header following a cross from Ian Selley.