Emmet Malone On Soccer: For some time now Pat Fenlon has been saying his squad at Shelbourne is made of sterner stuff than the teams he featured in while playing with the Tolka Park outfit.
Now, with the league title to be decided on Friday night after a long spell during which few people expected the manager's assessment to be seriously tested, we're about to find out what the club's current crop is made of.
Three months ago Shelbourne looked virtual certainties to retain the championship. Neither Cork nor Bohemians had shown the sort of form required to seriously challenge Fenlon's men while Drogheda never seemed likely to maintain their form to the end of the season, a point conceded by the club's manager Paul Doolin. The hope of their rivals must have been that Shelbourne's high-profiled European adventure would prove enough of a distraction to allow them make up ground but the Dubliners repeatedly looked solid when they did play during that spell to stay ahead of the pack.
Surprisingly it was only when both the Champions League and UEFA Cup were behind Shelbourne the team began to show signs of wavering. Now, three days before the games that will decide their fate, they remain favourites to clinch another title. However, recent form suggests Cork City might be capable of stealing it from under their noses round about 9.30 this Friday evening.
City's manager Pat Dolan knows what can happen if a team can keep its nerve in these circumstances. In 1998 his St Patrick's Athletic team triumphed in this situation when a win in Kilkenny pushed them top after Shelbourne suffered a surprise defeat in Dundalk. Dolan had gone to Buckley Park knowing all the pressure was on the league leaders and he won't have forgotten how good a position that is to be in. Fenlon, meanwhile, was one of two Shelbourne players suspended that night and Damien Richardson's decision not to defer the ban to the following week's FAI Cup final by appealing it must have haunted the then manager through the rest of his time at Tolka Park.
Three years later Shelbourne missed out on the last day again, losing at home to Cork while Bohemians romped past Kilkenny to snatch the title. Shelbourne's only consolation this time is Dolan's men won't be heading for Buckley Park on Friday.
Given Cork's form of late, though, it's hard to see how it would matter where they are playing. The club's directors must wish the team had managed a more even title push for at one stage during the summer the crowds at Turner's Cross had dipped badly and there was talk that Dolan might start next season under quite a bit of pressure.
Their recent form, however, has been remarkable. A couple of months ago they looked tired and dispirited. There were clearly problems within the camp with George O'Callaghan and Greg O'Halloran amongst the most disgruntled. Three games against teams from Dublin yielded just one point before this run started. Their title hopes looked to be dead and buried until Dolan moved Kevin Doyle into attack and the former St Patrick's Athletic midfielder grabbed them a rather flattering winner away to Dublin City. Since then they have comfortably been the top side in the country.
Doyle's contribution of eight goals in the 11 games City have gone unbeaten since has been crucial but Dolan has clearly got the team playing together now in a way they weren't in late summer, with the arrival of Joe Gamble having improved things and, more surprisingly, the dropping of Neale Fenn apparently not having hurt.
Their fightback has been stunning. Nine points have been made up in as many games with their relative goal difference improving by 11 during the same period so that it is the same as that of their rivals. During that time City have won seven and drawn two while Shelbourne, who could hardly be said to have collapsed, dropped points in a number of games Fenlon will know should have been won.
Ultimately it all still looks like it might be fractionally too little too late for the southerners who, for all their recent heroics, look set to miss out on a first title since 1993 because of missed opportunities of their own during the first two thirds of the season.
Several matches stand out as you look back on their record but two home defeats by Shelbourne certainly left them at a considerable disadvantage. The second game, in mid August, went the way of the Dubliners thanks to a solitary second-half goal by Stuart Byrne and the reality is that had City just managed a goalless draw that evening then they would need only to match Shelbourne's result this Friday night.
With neither Bohemians nor St Patrick's Athletic having anything other than pride to play for that's a situation that would have looked pretty promising for the Turner's Cross outfit. As it is, though, Fenlon's team should take at least the point they require but only if he's right about the collective character of a side he has come to know very well over the past eight months or so.
