ANOTHER day, another draw, seems to be the curse hanging over St Patrick's Athletic of late, but Brian Kerr's side will have to change their tune - and quickly - if they are not to find themselves edged out of the title race they have led so long.

In feline terms, St Patrick's used up another life just to get their single point last night. The home side only got the better of this game for spells of the second period, and depended on a controversial Paul Osam equaliser to deprive Derry City of the win.

True, it was the home side who enjoyed the first couple of chances in a quiet opening half hour, but, having failed to take any sort of control of things, it was Derry City who began to threaten down the wings.

Tom Mohan, in particular, caused Peter Carpenter repeated problems down the right. But, when it came, Derry's first real chance of the match looked set to fall between Paul Doolin and Harry McCourt, who had been played on-side by a clumsy John McDonnell back-header, only for the offside flag to go up anyway.

But within two minutes the visitors went in front when their opponents took a nap under a Gary Beckett cross. McCourt blasted the ball past Gareth Byrne from six yards out.

But for Willie Burke it would have been two by the break, as Mohan and Beckett linked up well, with the latter left with a tap-in at the near post until the young full-back intervened to push the ball behind.

At that point it appeared the St Patrick's central defenders were doing all in their power to allow the young Beckettto impress the visiting Steve Heighway. But in the early stages of the second period the Derry City striker supply dried up temporarily.

Paul Osam began to have more of an impact on the left as Peter Carpenter pushed up behind him while Johnny Glynn, a half-time replacement for Martin Reilly threw himself about to some effect around the box.

Ricky O'Flaherty seemed to make enough room for himself to score off Carpenter's cross in the 53rd minute but blasted over while Glynn played a 60 yard one-two with Paul Campbell before heading too far across the goal.

But it was at the other end that a save was required when Pascal Vaudequin, who fractionally edged out Carpenter for full-back of the night, pulled in from the right and skipped through a couple of challenges before cueing up a shot for Doolin, which Byrne did very well to touch around the post.

Normally so effective around Richmond Park, O'Flaherty could find only the crossbar with his next attempt. But Osam went one better in the 82nd minute when he both started a four-man move and finished it with a powerfully driven goal from 10 yards out on the left hand side of the box.

The Derry City players rightly claimed that the scorer had used his arm to control the ball in the lead-up, but Dick O'Hanlon was well placed to make his somewhat curious decision that the contact had been accidental.