FAI Cup: Last week's defeat by Cork City marked the halfway point in Roddy Collins's campaign to save Dublin City from relegation and with the club looking worse off now than it did when he took over in late July it's increasingly hard to see how the characteristically hyped rescue mission is going to be successfully concluded.

Few clubs, to be fair, can have made a more determined effort to make the step up from one division to the other. After leading the club to the first division title, John Gill was probably the busiest of the country's 22 managers when it came to buying and selling before the new season kicked off.

He was, however, unable to afford some of those he sought and incapable of persuading others that the club could avoid a season-long slog at the wrong end of the table. Sure enough, when he departed in the wake of a 1-0 FAI Cup defeat by Monaghan United, City lay five points adrift at the bottom of the table, having taken just 16 points from 20 games.

Having initially said there would be "two or three coming in", Collins instead opted for another dramatic overhaul amid confident predictions that the situation could be turned around.

Two months on there has been little enough in terms of performances or results to suggest that the former Bohemians manager can live up to his word.

Collins talking the prospects of his team up could hardly be considered a surprise but the fact that the team's return per game has actually declined (albeit fractionally) since his arrival must be a terrible blow to those who were convinced he offered them a way of avoiding a swift return to the relative obscurity of the first division.

What is perceived as an attempt through his comments in the media to blame the team's ongoing problems on Gill has, however, seriously riled Collins's predecessor, who feels the new man has made more than his own share of mistakes since taking over at the club.

Gill is brutally frank about his inability to make more of an impact on the premier division. But, he argues, the scale of the changes made by Collins were totally out of proportion to what was required by a club that had the bones of a solid team playing decent football.

Gill believes it's now time that Collins, having made such sweeping changes, accepted his share of the blame for the team's current plight, which would be worse, Gill points out, but for a win over Rovers achieved with many of the players the new manager had initially marginalised.

Certainly some of what has occurred since Gill departed hasn't been pretty. The batch of players brought in from Britain proved a mixed bag, with even the two veteran international stars, Efan Ekoku and Carlton Palmer, producing starkly contrasting performances for the club.

Neither travelled for the City game although the official line is that they are both still under contract and available if required.

It is, however, hard to see the club going to the expense of bringing the unimpressive Ekoku in again while Palmer would want to love both Dublin and a relegation battle if he is to reappear given that, officially at least, neither he nor the Nigerian international was getting anything other than travel and accommodation costs for playing.

If that sounds a little remarkable then consider the fact that Collins himself is said not to be taking anything for his efforts either. City chief executive Ronan Seery insists that is the result of a mutually beneficial agreement between the pair - "he was sitting at home without the phone ringing and I needed a manager but had very little money" - rather than any desire on Collins's part to hold onto a Mercedes paid for by Carlisle United. The terms of his severance with Carlisle allow him to retain the car for two years or until he obtains paid employment.

Seery's lack of funds is, of course, easy to understand given the poor crowds at home games. In every other area of the club's operations it seems, the hugely resourceful chairman has succeeded in generating funds in what are far from the most promising of circumstances. But when it comes to attendances he admits to being "devastated" by scenes like last Thursday's when fewer than 300 turned out to watch the game against Cork.

He insists he won't accept the inevitability of relegation, however, until it becomes a mathematical certainty. And there are certainly those both inside and outside the club who believe Shamrock Rovers might continue their current freefall, thereby making it possible for City to overhaul them, possibly on the last day of the season when the two teams meet.

The difficulty is that the club have taken just five points from the last eight games and even if Rovers were to take none for the remainder of the season their rivals would have to improve if they are still to have anything to play for in that last round of games.

Rumours that Collins had quit in the wake of the loss to Cork were angrily denied by the club yesterday. Even Seery admits, though, that the manager's reputation is on the line.