LEAGUE OF IRELAND/St Patrick's Ath 0 Cork City 1:  A third defeat in four games further loosened the home side's grip on second place in the league at Richmond Park last night with Danny Murphy scoring on the hour to leave St Patrick's Athletic limping towards the end of the campaign.

City, with one change - Darragh Ryan in for the suspended Darren Murphy - from the side that lifted the Setanta Cup over the weekend arrived in Inchicore still not sure of what they will have to do in order to land the potentially significant prize of a fourth-place finish.

Drogheda, who confirmed yesterday that they will appeal the 10-point penalty imposed for entering examinership, and another contender Sligo Rovers are at Turner's Cross this Friday.

The win here, though, is certainly a significant step in the right direction with the visitors moving to the fore of the mid-table pack, at least until the weekend.

Their hosts are already guaranteed a place in the Uefa Cup and need only worry at this stage about where in the pecking order of Irish entrants they come. This defeat suggests it might well be behind Derry, who visit Inchicore next week for a game that might play a big part in deciding second place.

If the runners-up spot is on the line when Stephen Kenny's men arrive in town, perhaps the Dubliners will rise to the occasion and rediscover their lost form and give their fans something to cheer about again.

On this occasion, though, they simply muddled through and while neither side looked up for pursuing the game with any great urgency the visitors played the bulk of the game's better football.

The lack of atmosphere in a sparsely populated ground can't have helped but both teams seemed to lack a cutting edge up front where a couple of Mark Quigley half chances aside, there was precious little to get excited about in the first half.

As the second half got under way, Keith Fahey provided a reminder of the way in which he can open up a game when the midfielder surged out of defence with the ball at his feet, ran 50 metres and then sent Ryan Guy through but the American's low shot from just outside the area bobbled wide of the right-hand upright.

Still, it took until the hour for one of the teams to make a breakthrough at which stage it was City who found the net; Murphy shooting low through the wall to the bottom right corner after Joe O'Cearuill had fouled Lawrie Dudfield on the edge of the area.

John McDonnell's side did start to pose more of a threat as they chased the game in the half hour that remained and Guy should have equalised when Dave Rogers's cross from the left somehow reached him at the far post.

The winger miscued his shot, however, and Dudfield might even have compounded the home support's misery when he broke away at the far end and narrowly missed the target.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan; O'Cearuill, Gavin, Partridge, Rogers; Guy, Lynch (Dempsey, 40 mins) Fahey (Kirby, 67 mins), O'Brien; Quigley, Harris (Fitzpatrick, 70 mins).

CORK CITY: McNulty; Horgan, Sullivan, Murray, Danny Murphy; O'Connor, Kearney, Gamble, Ryan; Dudfield, Behan.

Referee: D Hanney (Dublin).