Waterford United  0 Galway United  0:Galway United's precious point against relegation rivals Waterford United at the RSC last night has guaranteed them survival in the top division barring a mathematical miracle in the last series of games next week.

Now unbeaten in five games, Waterford will have to wait until next week with UCD, Bray and Longford to see who occupies the bottom two places in the table.

Galway came closest to scoring in a tentative first half in which both teams were desperate not to concede an early goal. On 37 minutes, John Lester crossed from the left to John Russell who touched on the ball to the inrushing Stephen O'Flynn, but his powerful shot was booted off the line by John Hayes.

Just on the quarter-hour, Derek O'Brien jinked past three defenders into prime position but his shot lacked punch and Dean Delaney saved comfortably.

Waterford came close to scoring in the first minute of the second half when Ray Scully crossed from the left but Gary Rogers did well to save Vinnie Sullivan's close-range shot.

On the hour, only an excellent piece of back-tracking by Robbie Hedderman denied Russell a clear shot on the Blues' goal.

O'Brien had a golden opportunity for the visitors on 71 minutes when he was put clean through by Ciarán Foley but ballooned the ball over the bar from 18 yards.

WATERFORD UNITED: Delaney, Flynn, Hedderman, Hayes, Breen, Warren (Lordan, 81 mins), Mulcahy, McCarthy, Sullivan, Kiely (Kearney, 61 mins), Scully (Bermingham, 72 mins). Subs not used: Browne, Holden.

GALWAY UNITED: Rogers, Keane, Charles, Nooitmeer, Fitzgerald, Lester, Foley, Russell, O'Flynn (Faherty, 78 mins), Murphy, O'Brien. Subs not used: Lynn, Cooke, Gough, Reilly.

Referee: Anthony Buttimer (Cork)