THE final table leaves no room for argument. The best team is the team with the most points and in, this case there's no questioning that St Patrick's Athletic are deservedly the National League champions.

In every league in the world traditionally the team at the top of the table wobbles. A cursory glance at the Premiership across the water confirms as much - in recent years Manchester United, Aston Villa, Blackburn and most recently Newcastle, quickly followed by United again, have all wobbled.

Not St Patrick's. Beaten 5-I by Derry City in early December, many within the game immediately removed them from contention. St Patrick's response was to assume leadership that same month with a string of four wins, and they have remained there ever since. Unbeaten in 22 games, 17 of them in the league, they have valiantly, at times brilliantly, withstood all comers.

It's so much easier to come from behind, with comparatively little pressure. Of the chasing pack, Sligo and Shelbourne in turn couldn't stand the heat generated by St Pafrick's, but had Bohemians overtaken them on the final day by goal difference it would have stuck in the craw.

Their night will surely come, but last night, and the season, deservedly belonged to St Patrick's. As ever with champions, they've built up the best home fortress - and four defeats all told in 32 games says everything.

They would have won the league last season had they converted three draws into wins, and this they did. Accordingly there seemed to be a marked determination to take more gambles at Richmond Park, where they have actually conceded more goals at home than anyone outside the bottom three.

However, they also scored more home goals than anyone in winning 11 games and accumulating 37 points out of 16 games. They came at teams with everything, the long and the short, through the middle and along the flanks, and of course Eddie Gormley's array of peerless finely-practised setpieces.

This was the hallmark of Kerr's side. No teams are better organised than his, and it's the product of a work-rate that is also second to none and would be beyond the compass of most of his rivals.

He must see more games than anyone, and besides having an incomparable knowledge of opposition teams he also seems to know every league and junior player in the greater Dublin vicinity and beyond.

Where others brandish the chequebook for Dublin-based National League players, or maybe look to this season he tapped adroitly into the Galway marketplace, along with which was a mix of the experienced, John McDonnell and Liam Buckley, and the typically Kerr-like samplings from junior football - Brian Morrisroe (ex-Manortown) and Martin Reilly (ex-Ashtownvilla).

Invariably his teams add up to seemingly more than the sum of their parts. His use of the squad system was excellent, juggling his forces ever so slightly from game to game.

There have been many individual heroes - "there's only one Eddie Gormley" and the other cult hero leading scorer, Ricky O'Flaherty, being the most obvious ones. But few, hardly any, had a bad season, while Dave Campbell was the rock around which an often impenetrable defence was built.

Magnanimously, the manager of outgoing champions Dundalk Tommy Connolly, acknowledged that "they deserved to win it. They've been the best side in the league all season. They had to come to Dundalk to do it and they did it. I congratulate everyone connected with St Patrick's."

Personally, I've always felt that there's more within this St Patrick's team. That, perhaps, will only be brought out with the confidence that results from a league title. John McDonnell boldly predicted on the eve of this game that St Patrick's could go on to dominate Irish domestic soccer.