It was no prettier than last year's affair but then nobody around Galway complained about the spectacle the night that Don O'Riordan's boys last sent St Patrick's back to Dublin with their tails between their legs.

It could have been the same last night and, briefly, looked like it would be when Willie Burke turned the rebound of Eric Lavine's close-range shot into his own goal 13 minutes before time but there was to be no repeat of last year's nerve-racking countdown to the final whistle.

Within seconds, United had surrendered the lead that they had worked so hard to gain and not long after they were consigned to the rather unpromising prospect of a return tie in Inchicore next Tuesday.

The replay is bound to be a better game than last night, another patternless battle played out in gale-force winds and, for periods, driving rain.

Afterwards both managers paid tribute to the way their players had coped with the conditions, Pat Dolan remarking that the game had, at times, been reduced to "a lottery" which would have gone Galway's way but for the "tremendous commitment that was shown out there". For O'Riordan, it was a "typical cup tie" but one which showed how far "everybody at the club has come in the last two years. They battled hard for it out there, and I'm proud of them for it."

Given the difficulty of the conditions, just about anything that came near either goalkeeper posed a considerable threat and, in the circumstances both did pretty well. Each had to prove themselves at set pieces and Eddie Hickey, in particular, was to be thanked for keeping his side on level terms early in the second period when he produced a couple of fine stops, first from Trevor Molloy and then from Marcus Hallows.

At the other end, though, Trevor Wood was constantly having to keep his head in a crowded area and that he did well with just over 20 minutes remaining when a prolonged scramble was ended by his outstanding touch to Lavine's pointblank drive.

Within minutes the scene was repeated but this time the shot eluded the goalkeeper and came back off the post only to be turned in by the helpless fullback. Briefly, it seemed, Burke's misfortune might provide the big crowd with the repeat of last year's quarter-final upset that they'd dreaming of but the celebrating had barely settled down when the league champions struck back.

If the visiting side's constant inability to deal adequately with balls dropped around the edge of their six-yards box gave some hint at the way they might end up conceding a goal, then United's slip-up came more out of the blue.

The home defence, though unorthodox at times in the way that they coped with the crosses and through balls aimed at Molloy and Hallows, had generally handled well all that the Dubliners could throw at them but the break down the right from the kick-off caught them cold and when it fell to him just outside the box, Martin Russell's drive left Hickey with little chance of making the stop.

GALWAY UNITED: Hickey; Neary, O'Connor, Morgan, Quirke; Sheridan, Dolan, Clery, Ogden; Lavine, Foley. Subs: Watson for Foley (90 mins), Gorman for Ogden (93 mins).

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Wood; Burke, McGuinness, Lynch, Doyle; Harte, Russell, Broughan, Gormley; Molloy, Hallows. Subs: Prendergast for Lynch (52 mins), McNevin for Harte (77 mins).

Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).