Alex Bannon scored twice for Derry City as the Candystripes fought back at the Brandywell
Derry City fought back from two goals down but their League of Ireland Premier Division title hopes suffered a blow in a 2-2 draw with St Patrick's Athletic.
Teenage striker Mason Melia, who will join Tottenham in January, opened the scoring at the Brandywell with a low finish on 40 minutes.
The highly-rated Melia turned from goalscorer to provider when he set up Chris Forrester to score a second in the 63rd minute.
However, Tiernan Lynch's side showed good resilience to pull a goal back through Alex Bannon with 15 minutes to play.
Bannon was on target again to level the game in the 85th minute and neither side could find a winner.
Derry remain third in the Premier Division table but are seven points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers, and the Uefa Conference League qualifiers have two games in hand at the top.
St Pat's, who are managed by former Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny, are four points behind Derry in fourth place.
