St Patrick's Athletic 2 Dundalk 2:PETE MAHON hopes to find out over the course of today just how much of this week's journey to Kazakhstan will be by charter flight and how much will involve what he suggested would be the aeronautical equivalent of a "camel trek".

Just about the only certainty last night was the club will not journey east for their game with Shakhter Karagandy as the League of Ireland’s leaders. Some sloppy defending in the face of a spirited performance by Dundalk at Richmond Park yesterday having put paid to their chances of securing the win they needed to go back to the top of the table.

The cost and logistics of the Europa League second qualifying round away leg remain something of a nightmare for Mahon and his men, with the manager acknowledging his frustration at still not knowing quite how the squad will travel to a base for the game that is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the venue. Bringing players who are unlikely to play is an unaffordable luxury too so Danny North, Dave Mulcahy and Conor Kenna are all set to be left behind in Dublin tomorrow morning, while Brian Shortall’s inclusion in the travelling party is a pretty strong indication that central defender will be fit to feature on Thursday night.

“It’s not ideal,” said Mahon more than once yesterday, “but after being a bit flippant about it on Thursday night, I’m deadly serious about it now. We’ll give it our best shot and look to bring it back here on Thursday week.” The only consolation is that by then, the visitors will be trying to shake off the effects of a similarly horrendous trip.

Mahon’s hopes of his side being in a position to clinch a place in the third round that evening may well come down to their ability to defend a little more effectively away than they did here. Some problems were probably inevitable given the changes to the spine of his regular starting line up and he clearly took some pleasure from just how many chances a highly entertaining game produced. But keeping it just a little tighter on Thursday is likely towards the top of a lengthy wish list for the rest of the week.

Derek Doyle volleyed home a Daryl Kavanagh corner yesterday to give his side an early lead but it gradually became apparent that Ian Foster’s men were not at all happy to go down without a bit of a fight. While their wingers were again fairly subdued here, Mark Quigley was a hub of creativity, with the former local favourite consistently looking to link midfield and attack with flicks and first time touches that repeatedly left the home side’s back four looking uncomfortable.

It was Stephen Maher, though, who set up the equaliser for Marc Griffin 12 minutes short of the break. He skipped past a couple of weak challenges and pulled the ball low back into the six-yard box where the young striker fired home his fifth goal in five games.

Griffin might have considered claiming the visitors’ second five minutes into the second period but Keith Ward’s got the final touch after a corner won by Quigley was floated into the centre for the 20 year-old to head goalwards.

Within 10 minutes they were back level, with Kavanagh and Doyle having successfully linked up again and the midfielder was denied his hat-trick not long after by a very fine Peter Cherrie save. He had another chance but missed the target as did Shane McFaul late on but Dundalk would have been hard done by in the end to go home empty handed.

Ian Foster, who hopes to bring in a defender today and perhaps another two players over the coming weeks, looked relieved. With the league programme finally having settled down he has the chance to concentrate on recruitment rather 10,000 kilometre return journeys. “I won’t know what to do with all the spare time,” he joked. “I really won’t. I just might go to Kazakhstan.”

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Pender, E McMillan, Guthrie, Bermingham; Murphy, McFaul, Crowley (Stewart, 80 mins), Doyle; Kavanagh, Daly (D McMillan, 64 mins).

DUNDALK: Cherrie; Maher, Madden, Bennett, N Murphy; Kearns, Bolger, Ward, Gaynor; Quigley, Griffin (Breen, 83 mins).

Referee: R Winter (Dublin).