A strange one this, for it's not often that you see a Cork City manager singing the praises of his players after dropping points to a team like UCD.

Not that the points aren't dropped quite frequently, City's record against the students is remarkably erratic but usually there is a sense of surprise outside the City camp and one of real disappointment within it. Not yesterday.

Losing two in a row must have been a blow for Dave Barry and the fact that the defeats were inflicted by City's two main rivals for this year's championships will not, on this occasion, have done much to put the slip-ups in perspective.

Still, what Barry had been complaining about in the build-up to the game had not been the results so much as the performances of the players who, he said, had lacked their customary commitment and passion.

Both were displayed in sufficient quantities at Belfield yesterday for him to praise all of his personnel. Although, had there been a little more ruthlessness up front, the City coach's declared satisfaction with the outcome might not have had to be qualified by the concession that dropping a further two points to Shelbourne was a blow that the southerners really could have done without.

During the first half the students, playing a sweeper behind a fairly flat back four, did enough to smother City's movement off the ball. But when it came to set pieces it had a habit of turning into open season on Barry Ryan's goal.

That the City goals were near replicas of each other was bad enough for the UCD players and their manager Martin Moran.

That they were both near re-enactments of the one scored by the southerners last week in the defeat by Shelbourne - a corner, flicked on and turned home at the far post - was doubly irritating for the recently appointed coach. Moran admitted afterwards that "it wasn't as if the routine came as a surprise, we'd spent the whole week talking about it."

Sadly, though, all the chatter didn't prepare them for the predatory instincts of first Pat Morley and then John Caulfield.

There were other times too, in which the students' defending of frees and corners was not the required standard, but on those occasions they were fortunate and, to their credit, they made the most of their luck.

In a fast game played in tricky conditions they matched Cork's passing game well and, particularly after abandoning the use of the sweeper at half-time, they caused the title contenders problems where City are more used to creating the difficulty themselves, out wide on the flanks.

To come from behind once, as they did when Mick O'Byrne drove against the post in the 42nd minute and Eoin Bennis followed up to plant the ball in the roof of the net was impressive in itself but to do it a twice, Ciaran Martyn this time tapping home after City had failed to clear either Eamon McLaughlin's floated free or Andy Noonan's header, showed a stomach for a fight that their visitors might have been forgiven for being surprised by.

In reality, though, the Dubliners could well have made it a hat-tick of defeats for their opponents. Martyn, for a start, should have done far better with a shot in injury time in the first half that would have left the sides level at the break.

And as the game went on it was the home side who began to create more around their opponents' area, eventually forcing Barry into giving Derek Coughlan his first run-out in eight months on the basis that his central defenders weren't clearing the danger effectively.

Had Martyn possessed a left foot worth talking about then Phil Harrington would at least have been forced into making a couple of decent saves but what was impressive was the threat they posed from different areas of the pitch, as McLaughlin showed when letting fly with a shot from 30 yards that wasn't far off the mark.

Afterwards Barry conceded that his side hadn't exercised the sort of control that he would have hoped for but described the point as "well earned".

He went on the explain that "after taking what were pretty bad beatings by St Patrick's and Shelbourne, matches that had a bad effect on the lads' confidence, there was a good deal to be happy about today.

"I said beforehand that I wanted to see us get back to basics and that's what we did. Shelbourne are the team to catch at the moment but I'd be happy after today that towards the end of the season we'll still be right there in shake-up."

UCD: Ryan; Mahon; McLaughlin, Delaney, McAuley, Noonan; Mooney, Kavanagh, Martyn; O'Byrne, Bennis.

CORK CITY: Harrington; Napier, Daly, Cronin, Daly; C O'Brien, L O'Brien, Herrick, Cahill; Morley, Caulfield. Subs: Coughlan and Glynn for Hill and Morley (85 mins).

Referee: G Perry (Dublin).