Sligo Rovers may well argue about a goal that wasn't, but in truth they were worth no more than the point they earned at Belfield yesterday.
Indeed, but for poor finishing in the first-half, and right at the end, by UCD, Sligo would have got nothing in their desperate fight to maintain their Premier Division status.
In a poor spectacle of a game, devoid of any technical merit or guile, honest effort at least kept a surprisingly large crowd vaguely interested.
Happy enough with the point, Sligo will nonetheless complain they should have had all three but for a marginal offside decision three minutes into the second-half when Mark Hutchison had the ball in the net from Conor O'Grady's free-kick.
If nothing, it gave Sligo the belief they seemed to lack in the first-half and they visibly grew in confidence to run the rest of the game. O'Grady forced a tip over save from Barry Ryan with a fine free-kick on 63 minutes, while Graham Brett had to make a brave block on a goal-bound shot from Wesley Charles.
UCD, strangely out of sorts for much of the second-half, having been the better side before the break, themselves threw away a great opportunity to win the game five minutes from time.
Eamnon McLoughlin, played through by Robert Dunne's header, clearly pulled out of going for the ball as Nicky Broujos easily gathered.
Having played second fiddle to a better organised UCD for much of the first-half, it was Sligo who might have been in front at the break.
Alex Rowlands' tenacious run up the right brought its own luck when the ball broke back to him to cross on 38 minutes. But Donagh Oates, arriving at the near post, steered his lunging effort off the upright and wide.
UCD would have felt aggrieved if it had gone in as they had run the match up till then, though the blame for their not being in front was totally their own.
Sligo's Broujos was by far the busier goalkeeper, fully alert on 10 minutes to race from his line and thwart the inrushing Eoin Bennis who had been played through by Ciaran Kavanagh.
Two minutes later, Michael O'Byrne wasted a glorious chance when Robert McAuley's sublime ball over the top picked him out. But, having skilfully chested the ball under control, O'Byrne volleyed into the arms of Broujos.
UCD: Ryan; Brett, Mahon, Lynch, McAuley; McLoughlin, Kavanagh, Martyn, Dunne; O'Byrne, Fitzpatrick. Subs: Kilmurray for Bennis (82 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS: Broujos; A Callaghan, Charles, Sheridan, Lynch; Rowlands, O'Grady, Reid, Hutchison; Oates, Shannon. Subs: Kennedy and Hoecks for O'Grady and Shannon (both 73 mins).
Referee: J Stacey (Athlone).
