If Shelbourne retain their title on Sunday by at least matching the result of their rivals Bohemians, they'll reflect with pride on the way they overcame the stubborn resistance of Shamrock Rovers with a compelling second-half performance.
If the first half was good, the second was mesmerising, with Shelbourne sweeping past their opponents before losing Richie Foran to yet another red card and being forced to dig deep for their points.
Shelbourne had the better of the contest before the turnaround but the goals simply wouldn't come and with the news from Longford at the interval making a second-half breakthrough all the more urgent, Dermot Keely opted to throw on Stephen Geoghegan at the break. He also switched Richie Baker to the left flank in place of the withdrawn James Keddy and replaced him on the right with his older brother.
Almost immediately the changes had an impact with the home side opening up the Rovers defence, and forcing Tony O'Dowd more than once to scamper out towards the outer reaches of his box to close down strikers who had made the most of gaps in the visiting side's back four.
A goal eventually came on 57 minutes, with Dessie Baker skipping over a couple of attempted challenges on the right and then cutting the ball back perfectly for Richie Foran to sidefoot home from a couple of yards.
Within four minutes it should have been two, with Geoghegan and then Richie Baker forcing good stops from O'Dowd. But the second soon followed, Geoghegan this time starting and finishing a sweeping move that also included contributions from Pat Fenlon and Richie Baker.
Rovers then went into freefall at the back with Foran, in particular, put clean through so often that it started to look as though he was involved in one of those American style end-ofmatch shoot outs. Still, somehow, O'Dowd kept the damage to a minimum which, in this case, meant a 74th minute strike from Dessie Baker who benefited from the goalkeeper's limited success in dealing with one of Foran's attempt on goal.
That Shelbourne weren't further in front moving into the closing quarter of an hour was remarkable but not nearly so odd as the fact that Rovers suddenly managed to force them on to the back foot.
The trouble started, not for the first time this season, when Foran got sent off, this time for handling Marc Kenny's wellstruck free kick in the 77th minute. It was his fifth dismissal of the campaign, all of them coming here at Tolka Park, and to make matters worse for the Dubliner, Don Givens, the Ireland under-21 manager was looking on from the stand.
From the resulting spot-kick Kenny confidently beat Williams and when the goalkeeper fumbled under pressure not long after it took a goal-line clearance by Pat Scully to keep the home side's grip on the game.
It was remarkable stuff, much more thrilling than we could have hoped for even after a highly entertaining first period during which Rovers had clearly demonstrated their determination to match a Shelbourne side whose pace and movement of the ball early gave a fair reflection of their desperate need to win the game.
In the middle third of the pitch the hosts steadily established their superiority and the result was the creation of a fairly steady supply of goal scoring chances. But while Paul Doolin made an early impact for Keely's side, Derek Tracey provided a counter balance for Damien Richardson's team in midfield and the visitors always posed enough of a threat on the counter attack to keep the Shelbourne defence on their toes.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, Scully, McCarthy, Hutchison; R Baker, Doolin, Fenlon (Crawford, 89 mins), Keddy (S Geoghegan, halftime); Foran, D Baker.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: O'Dowd; Kavanagh, Palmer, Cronin, Woods (Stewart, 87 mins); Kenny, Tracey, Colwell, Byrne; Robinson (Cousins, 86 mins), Grant. Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).
