No lack of drama in a huge weekend in the Airtricity League. Here's our take-aways.
1) St Pats are firmly back in the driving seat
A huge win for St Pats over Dundalk on Friday saw the Dublin side re-establish a 3 point gap at the top of the table. It was a deserved win for the Dubliners who shut down Dundalk's talisman Richie Towell early on before pressing on through their own playmakers. After a couple of unexpected draws recently (not to mention a comprehensive defeat to Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup), plenty had been questioning Pats' "bottle". Those questions were answered emphatically on Friday evening. With 5 games to go, there' s still work to be done but if Pats play with same intensity as Friday, they should be fine. The mid-season signing of Daryl Kavanagh raised eyebrows throughout the league. He too is answering critics with goals like this;
2) Sligo remain in the hunt
Sligo Rovers comfortably beat UCD 3-0 in Belfield to stay in touch at the top of the table. The champions are still 5 points behind St Pats but they play each other in 3 weeks time. Even if they win that clash, they'll need Pats to drop points elsewhere (and win all their own games) but Sligo won't give up their title without a fight. At the very least Rovers will continue to play to clinch a Europa League qualifying spot.
3) Shamrock Rovers pick up their second trophy of the season
For the second time this season Shamrock Rovers beat Drogheda United in a cup final in Tallaght Stadium. An early penalty won, and converted by, Gary McCabe set Rovers on their way and Drogheda never really threatened to equalise. Tommy Stewart's 2nd half goal clinched the EA Sports Cup for Trevor Croly's men. You can watch full highlights of the game here.
4) Shelbourne look increasingly in trouble
A huge win for Bohemians over local rivals Shelbourne leaves Shelbourne rooted to the bottow of the table. In potentially their biggest game of the season, Shelbourne were completely blitzed by Bohs young side and they're now 5 points behind them, With UCD and Bray also losing, the bottom of the table has UCD on 26 points, Bohs on 25, Bray on 21 and Shels on 20. It's very hard to see where Bray and Shels will pick up the points needed to overtake Bohs or UCD. It could be a fight to see who gets the play off spot instead of automatic relegation.
5) Cobh and Longford love goals
Longford Town beat Cobh Ramblers 7-2 last night as they helped postpone Athlone's promotion party for at least a week. Longford and Cobh have played 4 times this season with Cobh winning one game 4-3 and Longford winning the others 4-3, 5-1 and 7-2. That's an astonishing average of 7.25 goals a game. There have been 90 goals in Cobh's 25 games! There average of 3.6 goals must be among the highest in any league in Europe.
Midweek games this week involving the EA Sports cup finalists and Pats will look to extend their lead to 6 points (even for day) on Thursday away to Bray.
