AS a means of winning a league it takes some beating. Four minutes to go in the penultimate game. A free kick and Paul Campbell performs his dead ball impersonation of Alessandro del Pierro. At last `Soupy' was an overnight sensation, and it took him only eight years to do it.
That's how long this previously unsung hero of Inchicore has been with St Patrick's. But it's all changed since the turn of the year, when Campbell assumed much of the dead ball duties in the absence of Eddie Gormley, and delivered seven goals in the process including that unforgettable winner in Dundalk. If St Patrick's are awarded a free kick in striking distance late on, the jostling to take it will be interesting.
Campbell hasn't watched the tape much since, not much. "It's just as well I got the Scotch tape because I rewound it and played it I don't know how many times. But I don't need the tape. I'll always have it in the back of my mind. To be eight years at the club and then get the winner to clinch the league was so special. I was ecstatic, but looking back it means more now. Nobody can ever take it away. I got the goal that won the league."
Like Dave Batty at Blackburn, Campbell assumes no rights to the 1990 title win, in which he made seven appearances. "I don't say I won the league, twice. I only won the league once, this year.
Campbell played schoolboy football with Stella Maris, whom he joined from Tallaght Town. Then he moved to Arsenal, where he spent a year playing alongside the likes of Niall Quinn, Charlie Nicholas and Kevin Richardson in the reserves..
Campbell took a while to adjust at St Patrick's. Originally a full back, he was not helped by the abandonment of Curtis Fleming's proposed transfer to Swindon, although a season's interlude at Galway earned him an FAI Cup medal in 1991.
He is an underrated, intelligent utility player with a good right peg and, like the typical St Patrick's player, he has a big heart.
Like his team mates, his confidence is high right now. "I think we'll win it in 90 minutes. I don't think it'll go to a replay. I honestly think it's going to be one of the best finals in a long time. The potential is there for it."
It's been a dangerous pastime these past six years, but more than ever there's a feeling within the game that next Monday's all Dublin bank holiday FAI Cup final could be special. Even the players seem to feel it.
"There's nothing in it. We might be called the favourites but between the teams there's nothing. I think they're a very good side. They play good football and they've a good system behind them. Because there's two different styles I think it's going to be a lot more open than previous finals."
