On Soccer: Like most of his fellow managers at this point in the Eircom League campaign, Pete Mahon's first instinct is to reflect on the points that have gotten away over the past few months when asked for his impressions of the season to date.

Almost uniquely, though, the UCD manager knows that his performance at Belfield is measured by a good many more criteria than where his side lie in the Premier Division. Still, on that score, there can't be too many complaints just now.

Mahon's primary concern when the club were promoted late last year was to avoid a swift return to the First Division and, while nothing is certain at this stage of the campaign, the team is well placed to do a good deal more than just survive.

Currently seventh in the league, they also retain an interest in both other major competitions, with both Shelbourne in the semi-finals of the League Cup and Longford in the third round of the FAI Cup to come over the next couple of weeks.

Around half the regular starting line-up are actually scholarship students, while senior players like Tony McDonnell, Mick O'Donnell and the manager's son, Alan, have also come through the system. Nevertheless, they have held their own against many of the best teams in the country.

At least as importantly, they have done well against rivals from the bottom half of the table, with the manner in which they utterly dominated St Patrick's recently on the way to a 1-0 win giving an indication of the talent within the side and the way it has been developed during a few short months in the top flight.

In that win, as on so many other occasions this season, the team's primary flaw was their lack of bite up front. Stephen Hurley scored a fine goal from midfield that night but in the four games since there have been just two goals, both penalties scored by Robbie Martin.

The striker, as it happens, missed another spot kick in Friday's evenly fought encounter with Longford Town which was enough to cost his side two points. All around the pitch, though, the Dubliners looked a match for last season's cup winners, with Aaron McEniff, Gary Dicker and Conor Kenna amongst the younger team members who were quietly impressive.

"Up front is a problem," Mahon concedes, "and we'll have to look at addressing that during the summer because it's a difficult position to play at this level without experience and we maybe need somebody to help the lads come through."

Otherwise, he says, he is more than happy with the way his players have coped and there is quiet satisfaction that several have been rewarded for their efforts with international call-ups, with Kenna's inclusion in the panel for tonight's under-21 game in Lurgan the latest success story.

Mahon, of course, is no stranger to bringing through young players from his many years at St Francis and even during his short stay at Bohemians he brought the likes of Jason McGuinness, Gary O'Neill and Ken Oman to the club. Along with assistant Eddie Wallace, he has simply stepped up the process a gear or two.

UCD might not have quite the allure the Dalymount Park outfit had then but there is a well-funded scholarship scheme (some €250,000 has been invested in the last couple of years) to entice teenagers in and, Mahon points out, the prospect that talented newcomers can break into the team much more quickly than they would do elsewhere.

The system, and his enthusiasm for it, is very much in keeping with the club's long-standing ethos under Dr Tony O'Neill. Still, it has to be done well if the team are going to cope at this level and there is no shortage of respect for the way Mahon has taken to the role since replacing Paul Doolin.

"For years he probably would have been the best non-league manager in the country and he's still very much in touch with that," says Derry City boss Stephen Kenny. "A lot of the players have been plucked from schoolboy football and put straight into the first team. You hear people saying you can't do that but Pete has when a lot of people wouldn't even have been bothering to look in that direction for players."

The search resumes this weekend when the new schoolboy season kicks off and Mahon and Wallace hit the parks looking for next year's scholarship prospects.

With a move across the campus to the Belfield Bowl, which will be shared with the rugby team, now likely in two years, one aspect of the club's future appears set to have been resolved but it is on the pitch that Mahon believes things look brightest.

"It takes time for young players to really thrive at this level but I think if we can get through this season without going down then we should be all right for quite a few years."

Some players might be lost to bigger spending rivals but, he says, "the trick is for us to be in a position to replace them from within and I think we're getting to that stage." In the meantime, the critics say, they simply bring nothing to the league. "Yeah, we annoy a few people all right," laughs Mahon, "but if things go to plan we'll be doing it for a few years yet."