More than halfway into the season and still we're supposed to be waiting for Shelbourne to really hit their stride. If last night's win over UCD is anything to go by, they may be celebrating a successful defence of their title without ever having produced anything like their best form.

Three first-half goals from Dessie Baker, Jim Crawford and, finally, Richie Baker meant that their latest step towards the title was more or less wrapped up before the interval.

Thereafter, they and the students became embroiled in a battle which produced enough scoring opportunities to be entertaining, but not the UCD goals that would have made a real contest of it again.

The visitors, to their credit, never gave up the chase and they consistently troubled their hosts over the course of the second period, especially when they managed to get decent crosses in.

When it came to it, though, their finishing was never good enough to force a memorable save from Steve Williams while they, late on, were saved from an even heavier defeat by the foot of the post.

Just as they'd done against Bohemians a week ago, the home side got going early on with Dessie Baker starting and finishing the fifth-minute move that gave them the lead.

Baker, currently back to his best after a prolonged spell during which he struggled to nail down a regular place in the team, fed the ball out wide from where his brother Richie turned it back in towards Foran on the edge of the area.

Barry Ryan came off his line and did well to block the striker's shot with his feet, but Baker did better, following the looping deflection up and holding off two defenders before helping the ball over the line for his fourth goal in six games.

For the 10 minutes that followed it seemed that the students might have been about to take a bit of a hammering. In just about every area of the pitch they were clearly finding it difficult to cope with the team that, since their miserable showing at Bray in the middle of last week, had regained a little of their rhythm.

Still, defence had been their weakest link at the Carlisle Grounds and it wasn't long before there was evidence of cracks around the back of Dermot Keely's back four again.

Though they had next to nothing in terms of possession early on, the visiting side were handed a golden opportunity to steal an equaliser in the 18th minute when Mick O'Donnell passed up a fine shooting opportunity in order to pull the ball back inside a couple of defenders who were attempting to scramble in between him and the goal.

The opportunity passed, but within seconds O'Donnell made amends, pushing the ball across from the left for Kevin Grogan who promptly buried it in the top left corner from 25 yards.

A wildly open game was always going to produce more goals and, after the Bakers had each gone close at one end and Grogan came within a whisker of giving UCD the lead at the other, Jim Crawford found the net from 20 yards after Clive Delaney and Robert McAuley had failed to cut out a cross from the right.

Foran then should have made it 3-1 after Dessie Baker had done all the hard stuff and left him with little more than a tap in from six or eight yards out.

The youngster managed to blast over the bar and must have been relieved when the potential sting was taken out of the half-time dressing-room review of the miss by the Bakers seconds before the break.

Dessie was the one to do the providing this time, floating in a corner from the left that his younger brother rose unchallenged to head home from inside the six-yard box.

Again the defending was poor and this time there simply no way back for Martin Moran's side.

SHELBOURNE: Williams; Heary, McCarthy, Scully, D Geoghegan; R Baker, Crawford, Fenlon, Hutchison (Keddy, 78 mins); D Baker, Foran (S Geoghegan, 66).

UCD: Ryan; McLaughlin, Delaney, McAuley (Quinn, 58 mins), Ryan; Kavanagh, Lynch, McDonnell, O'Donnell (Mahon, 58); Grogan; Bennis.

Referee: D O'Hanlon (Waterford).