A glance at last year's final table must leave them wondering over in Inchicore what might have been had they not played like relegation candidates for the first third of the campaign.

Last night they looked like a side expecting much more out of the coming months, though, and after last week's comfortable home win over Galway,

Pat Dolan's side crossed the city looking confident they could repeat the trick against rivals so bitter, it seems the only talking the two clubs do is on the pitch and in the tabloid columns.

Shelbourne, of course, still have Thurday's European game to worry about so perhaps there were times when all of the home side's players' minds weren't quite on the work at hand.

For most of the first half they were manifestly second best in every area of the pitch bar attack, although so superior were they there they could well have led rather than trailed at the break.

Central to their success up front was Garry Haylock who looked sharp and inventive. Even from some fairly unpromising positions the striker, shipped off up north last season when his form completely deserted him, seemed capable of pulling a goal out of the bag as he well might have done when his curling first time shot towards the top left corner slipped just the wrong side of Seamus Kelly's angle.

It was just one of several chances Haylock had to get the home side on the scoreboard, his best effort coming towards the end of the half when his willingness to chase back and attack the box from deep positions gave him the opportunity to whip in a shot from wide on the left.

Expecting the cross, Kelly had ventured a couple of yards forward and as the ball sailed in behind him and skimmed off the crossbar the former Cardiff City keeper was forced to scramble back in an attempt to guard against a follow up.

Behind Shelbourne's frontline, however, Dermot Keely's men were faring less well. Though gradually they did get on level terms after an opening spell in which they were simply played off the park.

For 15 minutes, it seemed, the Saints were incapable of misplacing a pass. Had their finishing been as stylish as their build-up the game would have been over before Shelbourne had figured out what was going on.

Of course, it wasn't, so they just did what they always do and scored from a set piece instead.

After Paul Osam had headed home Martin Russell's 35th minutes corner Shelbourne seemed to dig a little deeper and after the Bakers' had both gone close to equalising late in the first period, it was no surprise at all when Davy Byrne's rasping shot came crashing back off the woodwork and Peter Hutton drove home the rebound early in the second.

After that it was all hard, fast and entertaining stuff with neither side able to get on top for any length of time.

Paul Marney, the visitor's impressive young midfielder would probably have taken the extra points for the visitors after Ger McCarthy sent him clean through the Shelbourne defence but Steve Williams stood up well.

Trevor Fitzpatrick had an even better close range chance late on but this time Kelly was quick to react, his save ensuring that Dolan's men went home with the point they deserved.

Shelbourne: Williams; Heary, Gannon, McCarthy, Minnock; R Baker, D Byrne, Hutton, B Byrne (Fitzpatrick, 53 mins); D Baker (Crawford, 77mins), Haylock.

St Patrick's Athletic: Kelly; Croly, Foley, Maguire, Burke; Mbabazi (Griffin, 64 mins), Marney, Osam, Russell; McCarthy (Harris, 86 min), Kelly (Holt, 84 mins).

Referee: P McKeon (Dublin).