If this is any indication of the supposed gulf between both ends of the Premier Division, then it augurs well for a highly competitive season.
Shelbourne, many pundits favourites for the title, fortunate to take a point from UCD, a team shorn of four of its best players close season, and main candidates for relegation. No so on this evidence on both counts.
In the 75th minute, a free-kick into the box by Shelbourne's Declan Geoghegan wasn't properly cleared and Pat Fenlon's low, right-foot shot took a deflection to wrong-foot Barry Ryan and trickle into the net for Shelbourne's opener.
Having lost a goal, UCD admirably didn't allow their heads to drop and they struck back for their just reward with an equaliser five minutes from the end.
Robbie Dunne's lob in the 85th minute caught the Shelbourne defence square and Eoin Bennis's pace enabled him to come through and calmly clipped over Alan Gough for a deserved goal.
"We didn't defend well," said Shelbourne manager, Dermot keely. "It would have been an injustice for them to lose the match, but, having said that, we lacked professionalism in not holding on to win having gone ahead with fifteen minutes to go."
UCD: Ryan; McDonnell, Mahon, Delaney; McLoughlin, Kavanagh, Lynch, Dunne, McAuley; Bennis, Kilmurray. Sub: Martyn for Kilmurray (74 mins).
Shelbourne: Gough; Gifford, Scully, McCarthy, D. Geoghegan; Ginty, Fitzgerald, Fenlon, Doyle; Morley, Sheridan; Sub: D Baker for Doyle (at half-time).
Referee: J Stacey (Midlands).
