National League Premier Division/UCD -2 Waterford Utd - 3: There were farcical scenes at Belfield last night when the kick-off was delayed 46 minutes because of a refereeing mix-up. At 7pm, some 45 minutes before the scheduled start, it became apparent no referee, assistant referees or fourth official had been marked to officiate.

The fixture was originally down for October 7th but was postponed because UCD players Darren Quigley and Gary Dicker were involved with the Ireland under-21 side against Cyprus and Switzerland.

The Eircom League had rescheduled the tie on September 28th but, it appears, the FAI-controlled referee's department then assigned no match officials for the night.

As both teams conducted their pre-match warm-up, frantic calls were made to cobble together a team of officials who could tog out at the 11th hour. Eventually, Dubliner Paul Tuite was contacted and agreed to race across city. He arrived at the stadium just after 8pm and was joined by assistants Fran Cunningham and Neil Doyle while Declan Hanney acted as fourth official.

Pat Dolan, acting in an advisory role with Waterford until the end of the season, said he was "flabbergasted" by the situation. "Waterford are fighting for their lives," he said, "this was an amazing situation when you think of how many Waterford supporters made the 200-mile round trip to this game. It's disrespectful to both sides."

The game was decided in equally dramatic fashion when Waterford defender Pat Purcell headed home the winner three minutes into injury time from a corner.

Waterford started well, scoring twice inside 13 minutes. First, Colm Heffernan slalomed through some second-rate challenges and fired home. Then, 11 minutes later, Kevin Waters netted.

But UCD regrouped and were awarded a penalty 15 minutes before half-time. Heffernan upended Robbie Martin in the box but goalkeeper Packie Holden batted away the striker's spot-kick.

UCD's Pat McWalter halved the deficit after 66 minutes with a shot from 14 yards before Anto Murphy capitalised on dreadful defending four minutes later to score from a tight angle.

UCD: Quigley; Mahon, Kenna, Shortall, O'Donnell; Hurley (Gannon, 88), McDonnell. Dicker, McWalter; Murphy (Byrne, 90), Martin.

WATERFORD UNITED: Holden; Breen, Doherty, Purcell, Hayes; Crowley (Andrews, 75), Mulcahy, Grant, Heffernan; Waters, Sullivan (Jack, 86).

Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).