Setanta Cup Final: The taunts of "small team from Dublin", directed by a few Linfield supporters at the Drogheda team bus as it pulled away from Windsor Park on Saturday evening suggested the Irish "football family" have a way to go in terms of cross-Border awareness.
In just about every other department, however, the third Setanta Sports Cup final provided strong evidence of recent progress within what was the island's most divided sport during the bad times.
Apart from the few national flags displayed by the two groups of fans, a political subtext to Saturday's game would have largely escaped the uninitiated, the jibes exchanged no worse than what you would hear at any game and the universal appreciation shown at the end for two teams that had pushed themselves to exhaustion quite impressive.
That Drogheda deserved to win was undisputed, Linfield manager David Jeffrey, a number of his players and the reaction of the home fans to Mikko Vilmunen's decisive penalty save all evidence of the fact.
That Linfield had enhanced their reputation for character was also beyond doubt, for manifestly struggling in game 57 season of another double-winning season, they had survived as one-sided a half of football as any of the 6,300-strong crowd is likely to see to first take the lead during the 90 minutes and then go within a whisker of winning the penalty shoot-out.
Along the way Alan Mannus, outstanding against Cork in the semi-final, made a strong case for being considered the best goalkeeper in the two leagues, while players like Noel Bailie, William "Winky" Murphy and Mark Dickson all ably answered those who say Linfield's domestic success is mostly thanks to the Irish League's lack of quality.
Unfortunately, a number of Jeffrey's key players were struggling. Pat McShane succumbed to injury in the first 20 minutes and Peter Thomson limped off in the second half. Others, including Murphy, looked at times to be in trouble.
Linfield's one injury doubt before the game, Paul McAreavy, never looked right and his failure to cope in central midfield with Stuart Byrne was a key factor.
For 45 minutes Byrne and Stephen Bradley were utterly dominant, providing their wide men and strikers with a stream of quality possession, while Thompson and Glenn Ferguson were largely reduced to spectating.
United, and in particular Eamon Zayed, had a hatful of chances before the break. But instead it was McAreavey who scored for Linfield, midway through the second half, with a close-range header after Aidan O'Kane's corner was headed back across the goal by Murphy.
Tony Grant levelled 10 minutes later with a close-range shot, after which two tired-looking sides largely cancelled each other out.
Among chances spurned by Drogheda while the game was scoreless had been a Damien Lynch penalty, saved well by Mannus.
And so it went to spot kicks, and after Lynch's effort was again stopped and Linfield scored their first three it seemed the home side were on the brink of victory.
But Vilmunen then saved from Dickson and, spectacularly, O'Kane, leaving Byrne to send Mannus the wrong way with the decisive kick.
"It's ironic that after missing our first two (penalties) in last week's cup final and going on to win, we've scored our first three today and lost," observed Jeffrey. "But to be fair it would have been an injustice had we lost against Dungannon just as it would have been one if Drogheda hadn't won there today."
Paul Doolin praised Linfield but was too honest to disagree with Jeffreys' summing-up, the Drogheda manager clearly revelling quietly in the fact his players had maintained their recent average of a trophy a season, while there is still time this year to improve upon that tally.
"Nobody," he said, "had previously been able to truly claim to be champions of Ireland, and after today we have the opportunity now to become the first."
LINFIELD: Mannus; Ervin, Murphy, Bailie, McShane (McCann, 14 mins); Dickson, McAreavey, Mulgrew (Mouncey, 93 mins), O'Kane; Ferguson, Thompson (Gault, 54 mins).
DROGHEDA UNITED: Vilmunen; Lynch, Shelley, Gartland, Webb (Gray, 57 mins); Robinson, Byrne, Bradley, Cahill (Keegan, 77 mins); Zayed, O'Brien (Grant, 64 mins).
Referee: A McCourt(Bangor).
