Another Airtricity League weekend wraps up ahead of midweek action in the EA Sports Cup and the first of European action of the season. Here's our take-aways.
1) St Pats stay top ahead of their European campaign
St Pats had a comfortable 2-0 win over Bray Wanderers and really couldn't have asked for an easier tie ahead of their trip to Lithuania this week. As they've no game next weekend they needed to win to rebound from defeat in Dundalk. After early season problems which saw him lose his starting place to Anto Flood, Christy Fagan is now flying with 6 goals in his last 6 league games. With so many games coming up for Pats, Fagan and his team mates are going to stretched to the maximum.
2) Derry City and Sligo Rovers and keep pressure on
Lying in second and third position Derry City and Sligo Rovers beat the bottom 2 to keep the pressure on Pats. If they both win next week, with Pats having already won their scheduled game, there will only be a single point covering the top 3. After that both sides will play Pats in succesive weeks and with Europe in the mix too, that fortnigt cold go a long way to deciding the fate of this year's title. Dundalk lost ground on the leading trio as they threw away a 2 goal lead in Limerick to lose 3-2. They travel to Derry next week for another crucial tie.
3) Drogheda are in a relegation battle
Drogheda United lost for the fifth consecutive game on Friday at home to Shamrock Rovers. They have won only once in their last 10 league games. That's an awful run for the team that finished second last year. Cooke may be looking at Thursday's game against Malmo as a distraction as he is surely more worried about league form. If they lose next week to Shelbourne, relegation will start to look more likely. Rovers continued their revival with their 4th consecutive win. They may be in 5th but surely the leading trio aren't willing to write off the Hoops yet?
4) Games are running out out for Shelbourne
John McDonnell's Shelbourne kept Sligo at bay for nearly an hour so they're clearly improving. They remain, however, 5 points behind Bohs and 8 points behind UCD and Bray. With only 15 games left it may be too late for Shels to get out of the bottom 2 and they'll have a fight on their hands even to make that 11th place for the play off spot. On the positive side, none of their next 5 games are against the top 5 so they will feel they have a shot at making a run at survival.
5) Athlone and Waterford are on the move in the First Division
Waterford have won their last 4 games as they continue without a manager since Paul O'Brien's resignation. Roddy Collins is reminded everybody that he isn't just a TV star but a football manager too and his Athlone team are in second on the back of 3 consecutive wins. With Longford slipping up away to bottom side Salthill a week after losing to Athlone, the automatic promotion spot isn't as probable as we thought 10 days ago. Waterford travel to Longford next week in what should be a cracker
Monday sees 3 of the EA Sports Cup quarter final take place while Pats and Drogheda enter the Europa League on Thursday.
