It was the perfect end to one of most memorably imperfect weeks in recent league history. After all the rancour and wrangling the leading contenders for this year's Eircom league produced a simply mesmerising contest packed with drama but lacking, as the absence of a single booking clearly demonstrated, any of the ill-will that might well have been expected after the build-up.

Shelbourne ... 2, St Patrick's Athletic ... 1

For 90 hectic minutes, the two sides gave it everything. While Shelbourne's first-half superiority gave them an edge to which they clung on to through the latter stages to secure the points that sent them back to the top of the table, the St Patrick's players must have made the short journey home last night haunted by the question of how they could have given so much but taken away so little.

The visitors had just about the better of the very early exchanges, but didn't come even close to making it count for anything. Instead, it was their hosts who were first to string together some passing movements with bite.

St Patrick's goalkeeper Seamus Kelly could do little about Shelbourne's opening goal. Owen Heary's neat ball in from the left looked like it was going to be turned in by Davy Byrne, but Trevor Croly nudged him off the ball from behind in full view of referee John McDermott.

The match official, to the fury of the St Patrick's bench, had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Stephen Geoghegan, with equal decisiveness, took matters from there.

Seven minutes later it was 2-0, Peter Hutton and Richie Baker linked up well on the right flank, from where the northerner sent in a cross that - though too high for the leaping Geoghegan - came down perfectly for Jim Crawford, who placed his volley nicely from eight yards out.

The defiance of the St Patrick's fans suddenly evaporated and Shelbourne seemed a good bet to silence them for the night.

Some excellent approach work just over midway through the half did give Byrne the chance to add a third, but Kelly saved and he quite brilliantly regathered himself to push Jim Gannon's follow-up past the left-hand post.

A goal then and the game would presumably have been up for Pat Dolan's side, but the save ensured that a single goal would keep them firmly in it. When it arrived, 11 minutes before the break, Shelbourne could blame nobody but themselves. Martin Russell's cross from the right was decent enough, but Colm Foley was left entirely to his own devices just outside the six-yard box from where he managed a looping header that took an age before dropping over Steve Williams and just inside his post.

Up to that the Welshman didn't appear to be having the best of nights, with his handling under pressure looking suspect on more than one occasion. When an equaliser would have been a devastating blow to the hosts, though, he topped even Kelly's effort from 15 minutes earlier, producing a spectacular reaction stop after Paul Osam had stolen in ahead of Hutton to turn the ball goalwards from no more than six yards.

The end of the half marked the passing of the night's best football for the second period was played at such a relentlessly breakneck pace that the majority of moves forward ended with an error and there were barely any chances of note.

For the most part, though, St Patrick's dominated a contest that possessed an intensity which this title race will do well to match over the coming couple of months.

Twice, as the game moved into its last quarter, Shelbourne went close to scoring on the break, with Crawford's close-range effort 20 minutes from time looking a realgood chance. Once again, though, Kelly made the save.

In the end the sheer determination he and his team-mates showed simply wasn't enough to squeeze anything out of the contest. Michael Holt's low, long-range effort that slipped some five feet the wrong side of Williams' left-hand post was as close as they came to getting their equaliser.

However, Dermot Keely's men desperately hung on and after the final whistle it was they who lingered and celebrated with the jubilant home support.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Hutton, Doherty, McCarthy, Heary; R Baker, Byrne, Gannon, Crawford, Fenlon; Geoghegan.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Kelly; Croly, Foley, Maguire, Burke (Harris, 90 mins); McGuinness (McCarthy, 63 mins), Marney (Griffin, 90 mins), Osam, Russell; Mbabazi, Holt.

Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).