The officials from clubs around the country who insisted during the recent debate on the structure of the National League that some of the proposed changes threatened to turn it into a completely Dublin dominated competition must view the current Premier League table with heavy hearts.

The five clubs from the capital are all now comfortably placed in the top six, one of the two sides that played each other on Friday night now looks certain to win the title and Cork City, whose disappointing draw with Sligo more or less ended their own championship aspirations, are only another slip up or two away from making it a clean sweep for the Dubs.

City's lack of form over the past couple of months has gone a long way towards turning what promised to be an exciting run in into a rather lacklustre affair. For most of the opening half of the campaign, though they were a little erratic even then, Dave Barry's side looked, on balance, to be a better one than Dermot Keely's. Injuries have been a problem as has, after a terrific start to the season by Pat Morley, goalscoring. It's hard to escape the conclusion that too many of the club's key players are the wrong side of 30. So if, as now looks likely to be the case, City don't win anything this season, an intense period of rebuilding will have to begin over the summer. If the buying and selling goes as well for the southerners as it has over the past 15 months for Roddy Collins, of course, then City could be right back there in the hunt for a major honour this time next year.

Since taking over at the start of last season, Collins has made Dalymount a major centre of such activity. From the outside looking in, the manner in which he chose to deal with some senior players seemed rather harsh and, on occasion, self-defeating. A couple of those who left seemed perfectly capable of still doing a job for the team, but as one of those forced out put it: "Roddy doesn't like to have any cuckoos in the nest."

Since taking over, he has thrown around a good deal of money. But most of it looked to have been spent well on Friday night when the likes of Avery John, Kevin Hunt and Paul Byrne all did well in another strong team performance. Even Ray Kelly, who looked set to leave a few weeks ago after a fairly miserable year at the club, is starting to make a bit of an impact.

The club claims to have done away with signing-on fees, but having so many full-time players on the books doesn't come cheap. Still, second place in the league and sitting snugly in the quarterfinals of the cup rarely comes cheaply either.

In both competitions, Shelbourne are the team best equipped to leave Collins and company empty handed and after the weekend's game, it's hard to see them slipping up in the league now. While Bohemians continue to be the most exciting team going forward, they make far more errors at the back than their rivals and Keely's men remain too efficient at grinding out the results when it matters to surrender a four-point advantage.

Had Collins, as he had claimed to, discovered the secret of beating them then Friday's match might have kicked off a gripping two-way tussle at the top, but once again a manager who has achieved so much in such a short space of time was simply building himself up for a fall.