Shelbourne - 2 St Patrick's - 0:NATIONAL LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION:When they tot up the points on the National League's final table in a few weeks time, nobody around Tolka Park will care too much how the wins were hammered out if Shelbourne have scraped their way above Bohemians to claim the championship title.
Points mean prizes, as the catchphrase used to go, and Pat Fenlon will console himself this morning with the fact that, if his Shelbourne charges aren't exactly pretty on the eye just now, then at least the win they ground out last night thanks to late goals from Jim Gannon and Stephen Geoghegan has prevented Bohemians from being left sitting pretty at the top of the table.
Four points still separate the top two sides with Bohemians due to play at Bray tomorrow and Shelbourne still need a favour or two from third parties over the weeks ahead.
But had they failed - as they looked very likely to for 80 of yesterday evening's grimly forgettable 90 minutes - to beat a visiting team that retains some slim hope of playing in Europe next season, then they would have been moving firmly into the territory of requiring a miracle.
Fenlon's men hardly lacked motivation, but, for long stretches, they were in need of some form of inspiration against a St Patrick's side that - while continuing to work as hard as ever - seems to play less and less football.
Not that they were alone on that score through the first hour of this contest.
Two sides apparently incapable of stringing more than a couple of decent passes together settled into a midfield battle high on physical commitment but, oh so low, on quality football.
That the home side's best chance early on in the game came from Jim Gannon's side-footed attempt to volley a Jim Gannon free into the bottom corner said a good deal about the first half.
And that the big defender's close-range header nine minutes from time seemed, for a brief while, certain to be the difference between the two teams at the end also seemed rather fitting.
With the stalemate finally broken, though, the slight improvement that had preceded the goal was built on as St Patrick's attempted to grab something back and the hosts started to find a bit more space into which to play.
There were a couple of half-chances, but nothing much, other than a spectacularly late challenge by Ger McCarthy, to trouble Steve Williams.
In the dying seconds, however, Stephen Geoghegan managed to slip through the visiting side's back four and into the left-hand side of the square from where he calmly pushed the ball through Séamus Kelly's legs.
It hardly made up for what had gone before, but it was still a decent finish at a welcome end.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Doherty (McCarthy 63 mins), Gannon, Crawley; R Baker, S Byrne, Crawford, Cahill (Hoolahan 81 mins); Roberts (D Byrne 59 mins), Geoghegan.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Kelly; Croly, Foley, Harris, Donnelly; Mannion (Russell 74 mins), Osam, Griffin; Mbabazi, McCarthy (Holt 87 mins), Bird (Doyle 87 mins).
Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).
