European exertions can be a distraction

On Soccer:As the League of Ireland campaign hits the half-way mark and the start of the main European competitions looms, those clubs hovering behind the front two might place their hopes of closing the gap on the strain of so many games proving too much for the front-runners.

Recent history, however, suggests that Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians have already allowed Drogheda and St Patrick's too great a lead for Europe alone to cause their undoing during the next few months.

That's not to say that the top two aren't about to have their mettle tested. Just that it is difficult to see both clubs falling apart to the extent that they would be caught by either one of their more distant rivals. Drogheda United manager Paul Doolin, as it happens, won't need reminding of the extent to which his side lost their way around this time last year. United embarked on their Uefa campaign against a background of strong domestic form and had they been able to maintain the average number of points they had been taking from each league game up until that stage they would have ended up winning the league by five points from Shelbourne.

Instead, their momentum evaporated during the weeks in which they played those four European games. The club won just one and drew a further three of five championship matches. Worse was to come as Doolin's men drew three more times and lost again before steadying themselves for the run in.

The scale of United's decline from an average of 2.23 points per game up until the played HJK for the first time, to 1.7 proved disastrous for the Louthmen but still shouldn't provide too much encouragement for the chasing pack this time around.

Slip-ups on that sort of scale have been rare in recent years, with only Shelbourne back in 2004, the summer they were beaten by Deportivo La Coruna in the third round of the Champions League and then by Lille in the UEFA Cup, matching it.

Pat Fenlon's side still managed to retain the title on that occasion, though, even if it ended up being a close-run thing. The Dubliners had led Cork City by a huge margin at the start of July but the challenge of the southerners, who themselves played in the Intertoto Cup, steadily gathered pace over the latter part of the campaign and after the last round of matches only three points separated the two clubs.

On the evidence of recent seasons, the Intertoto is the competition to play in if you remain serious about domestic success. Only a combination of Shelbourne's fractional improvement in the wake of their involvement last year and Derry City's similarly marginal Uefa Cup hangover ensured that the title went back to Tolka Park.

A year earlier Cork survived a decline to beat off Derry on the last night of the season while Shelbourne proved that even Champions League participation can spark an improvement at home, you just need to ensure that you haven't left yourself too much to do in the run in.

Unfortunately for Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers, that's where the real problem appears to lie. Not only do they need both of the top two clubs to be hit by a sustained loss of form but they almost certainly need to considerably step up their own games.

United are on course to pick up 70 points or so from their 33 games but even a decline on a par with last season's would leave them on 63, That, in turn, would hand Pat Scully's Shamrock Rovers, for instance, the task of taking eight points more from their remaining 17 games than they did from their first 16. It's not an impossible target, but even assuming the two clubs play ball, so to speak, it's a tall enough order.

As it happens, both Scully and Bohemians manager Seán Connor will emerge from the transfer window better equipped for an assault on the summit but the same can be said of St Patrick's Athletic, while injury-afflicted Drogheda's primary concern is getting players already at the club playing again.

On current form, of course, John McDonnell's St Patrick's Athletic wouldn't make the top four. Four points from their last five league games has drained the side of the early-season confidence that flowed so freely.

Lack of depth within the squad has certainly been an issue but not so much, you would have thought, as to cost them points against the likes of Waterford, Bray and UCD in just the last few weeks.

Still, there is money there and the club brought in three good players last week, with work on recruiting one or two more continuing yesterday ahead the Uefa deadline.

For all that, things need to come together very quickly for McDonnell and his newly-improved squad to turn over Odense in a couple of weeks.

Failing that, though, there is always the prospect of a glittering consolation prize for defeat by the Danes might just leave them ideally placed to capitalise in the event that Drogheda once again become distracted by the demands of European football.