AS SCORELESS draws go, this wasn't typical of the genre. The captains, Cork's John Caulfield [and, for the night, Eddie Gormley of St Patrick's, should have scored at least three goals between them. However, uncharacteristically poor finishing and the save of the night kept the scoreline blank.

Cork gave injury hit St Patrick's problems early on. Noel Hartigan shot narrowly wide in only the third minute before Caulfield wasted the best chance of the first half 12 minutes later. Kelvin Flanagan and Hartigan combined to play him through on goal, but he hurried his shot which went well wide.

St Patrick's, who started with out skipper John McDonnell, also lost his fellow central defender, Mick Moody, with a knee injury after just 14 minutes. They reshuffled and recovered well to dominate much of the remainder, of the half. However, they lacked a killer instinct in front of goal and well created openings for Jason Byrne and John Glynn went, abegging.

Cork introduced tail striker Damien O'Connell at half time and he thought his "clever flick from Gareth Cronin's free kick within seven minutes had set up Caulfield for the opening goal only for the out of sorts striker to blast wide from six yards.

Cork enjoyed much of the play throughout the second half, but were almost punished in a rare St Patrick's attack on 68 minutes. Declan Daly's clearance struck a St Patrick's player to play Gormley through.

However, Cork goalkeeper Noel Mooney, positioned near the edge of his box, did well to push Gormley's shot away, when a chip from the St Patrick's midfielder might have broken the deadlock.