SOCCER: Shelbourne - 2 Cork City - 0: Seven months after they romped to an opening day victory in Waterford that launched their assault on the Eircom National League, Pat Fenlon's men clinched the title last night with a demonstration of stamina that their rivals Bohemians lacked in Drogheda on what turned out to be the last night of their enthralling tussle for top spot, reports Emmet Malone at Tolka Park

There have been times during the past couple of months when Shelbourne showed signs of the same sort of vulnerability that had proven so costly in previous seasons, but last week's defeat of Bohemians at Dalymount proved to be the decisive turning point for the Tolka Park side. That victory provided them with an advantage they drove home with victory over Cork City with goals from Jamie Harris and, of course, Jason Byrne.

Even without the likes of injured top-scorer John O'Flynn and absent youth internationals Kevin Doyle and Liam Kearney, City managed to start the game brightly enough.

With George O'Callaghan playing in a more advanced role than a couple of weeks ago in Dalymount, Michael Nwanko looking effective in the middle of the field and Colin O'Brien's returning to the right flank added to the side's attacking capabilities.

After just seven minutes they might even have taken the lead when O'Brien released Ryan Casey inside the box and the midfielder sent the ball crashing off the outside of the left-hand post when he had enough time and a big enough target to do better from just eight yards out. A goal then would have provided another of those tests of character Shelbourne have become so adept at passing of late but they survived and gradually began to find their stride.

With Kevin Doherty returning to partner Tony McCarthy in central defence, Fenlon was able to throw Jamie Harris back up front where, as he had done during his previous spell playing with Jason Byrne, he proved something of a revelation.

Last night he again looked a step up on Byrne's various other partners of late, displaying strength and determination around the City area as well as a strong sense of where his more prolific team-mate was at key moments. Briefly, with less than 20 minutes played, he looked to have put the home side in front when he got onto the end of a Dave Rogers flick and slipped the ball home from close range.

Even before he started celebrating, however, he took a moment to check for a flag and, sure enough, the referee's assistant was indicating he had strayed the wrong side of the last defender.

The night was young, though, and with the balance of the game shifting steadily in their favour, the Shelbourne front two were just getting started. Almost inevitably it was Byrne who opened the scoring, controlling an attempted clearance by Derek Coughlan and quickly striking a shot that was helped past Michael Devine by the touch it took off Dan Murray when the centre half attempted to block.

That was number 19 of the campaign for the former Bray Wanderers man and his 20th might have followed before the interval when, showing his considerable versatility when within range of goal, he almost headed a Richie Baker cross into the top corner.

News from United Park at this stage was still hard to come by and there was the occasional false alarm as the home support greeted rumours of what turned out to be non-existent goals.

What was becoming clear, however, was that Cork City were not going to undermine the Dublin clubs' tightening hold on the championship.

With 20 minutes remaining, City boss Pat Dolan made a stab at salvaging something from the game when he threw on Denis Behan and reorganised things so that he had three men in attack.

By then, though, his men were two behind, Harris having this time finished well with his head after Rogers had floated the ball in from the left and within minutes word of a real breakthrough for Drogheda swept around Tolka.

The title, the supporters knew now, really was coming back to Drumcondra and this time it was won, and won well, on the field of play rather than in Merrion Square as it had been two years ago when St Patrick's Athletic's failure to properly register all of their players had handed Shelbourne the title by default.

After word filtered through of Drogheda's second goal, the closing stages of this game began to feel like something of a sideshow with the crowd anxious to start the celebrations in earnest as Fenlon worked desperately to keep his players focused. They in turn missed a number of opportunities to extend their lead, but that mattered little in the end.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Doherty, McCarthy, Rogers; R Baker, S Byrne, Crawford, Cahill (Holahan, 71 mins); J Byrne (McCarthy, 84 mins), Harris (S Geoghegan, 90 mins).

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Coughlan, D Murray, Woods; CT O'Brien, O'Grady (K Murray, 70 mins), Nwanko, Casey (Fraher, 82 mins); Nolan (Behan, 70 mins), O'Callaghan.

Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).