Shelbourne - 0 UCD - 0:Soccer National League/Premier Division: With their own position in the league still requiring another of those remarkable feats of escapology they have produced in recent season, UCD have bigger fish to fry just now than looking to influence a championship race that grows more addictive with each twist and turn.

This, their second draw of the season at Tolka Park, might still be remembered, however, as one of the key setbacks to Shelbourne if the title eludes Pat Fenlon's men and if Bohemians, who can go top again this evening, lift this year's title.

Two great late saves by UCD's Pat Jennings were not enough to pull Pete Mahon's side level with Derry City at the foot of the table. But the draw might make all the difference if Derry cannot at least match the achievement against Bohemians this evening.

Shelbourne seemed content to toy with a UCD side that should have been undone well before a rather frantic end.

Had the home side played the way they did here in the second half of the recent game against Shamrock Rovers the contest would have produced a decisive win. But nobody in Fenlon's side seemed to be firing on all cylinders and so a side capable of much better became bogged down in a match so lacklustre early on it was difficult to believe we were watching a side that might be crowned champions in a few weeks' time.

Shelbourne dominated increasingly as the night wore on but there was little discernible pattern to their attacking game in the opening half and very few occasions on which Jennings was threatened. It was nearly 10 minutes into the second half before the goalkeeper had to make a good save - Richie Baker held Darragh Ryan off well before hitting a low but weak shot that Jennings still did well to nudge away - and there were times when it appeared he would not stand up to a serious examination from the home side's strikers.

Certainly if Jason Byrne had been on song the visitors would have had problems as the former Bray Wanderers man saw plenty of the ball in the sort of positions in which he normally thrives. This time he was incapable of generating a serious threat with his best chance coming 10 minutes before the break when Jennings's poor clearance went straight to Richie Baker whose first-time cross was hastily turned wide of an empty goal from the edge of the area by the striker.

Within a minute of the second half starting he went close to turning a Dave Rogers free in at the right-hand post and there followed a couple of goalmouth scrambles from which Fenlon must have thought a goal would come. When one finally did, courtesy of Jamie Harris, it was disallowed for offside.

By this stage the home support's patience was approaching breaking point but Pete Mahon's side simply weren't prepared to buckle under the mounting pressure and they provided the odd reminder on the break of how Shelbourne might be punished for over-extending themselves up front.

Set-pieces had produced the best of their few chances in the first half but Robbie Martin should have done much better from play midway through the second half when, clean through, he fired a yard or so clear of Steve Williams's crossbar.

Shelbourne promptly resumed their desperate search for a winner. Harris was thrown forward and in the final minute headed down for Jason Byrne whose close-range shot was brilliantly saved by Jennings. In time added on, Gerard Rowe almost hooked the ball over Jennings but again he got the touch required to keep things very interesting at both ends of the table.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Harris, McCarthy, Rogers; R Baker, Morgan, Crawford (S Byrne, 86 mins), Cahill (Hoolahan, 73 mins0; Byrne, Geoghegan (Rowe, 75 mins).

UCD: Jennings; Sullivan, McNally, McAuley, Ryan; Whelan, Cawley, McDonnell, O'Donnell; Rooney (Griffin, 82 mins), R Martin (Gallen, 82 mins).

Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).