Emmet Malone On Soccer: League officials from both sides of the Border will sit down with Setanta television executives over the next two weeks to consider what can be learned from this year's revived all-Ireland competition.

However, with the same three clubs from the North already qualified for next time and the organisers having little room for manoeuvre in terms of the tournament's place in the calendar, there are unlikely to be any dramatic changes to the existing format.

Setanta's chief executive Niall Cogley said before the tournament kicked off with Longford's trip to Glentoran in late March that he expected the Setanta Cup to be something of a slow burner with interest building as the event found its feet over a few years.

Sure enough, year one was a solid if not spectacular success with crowds, particularly for the games down South, slightly above average and interest levels among the game's wider audience highly respectable given the crowded market into which it was being launched.

Some problems remain in terms of the timing (the slightly later than expected start meant the Irish League sides were a few weeks out of season by the time the final came around), the size of the groups (four would seem more logical and would offer options in terms of which games are televised live and the possibility of introducing a semi-final stage), and the venue for the final (it seems unlikely a ground belonging to one of the finalists will be used again in a hurry).

On balance, though, the event was a highly positive development for the game here with the standard of football and Setanta's presentation of the games providing much needed examples of what is possible within a limited market.

Saturday's final could probably not have gone much better from the perspective of the competition's future. The launch of the event had been more enthusiastically received south of the Border but interest appeared to build in the North over the last few weeks.

Ultimately there will be considerable satisfaction with the way Linfield's part-timers shattered the perception that teams like Shelbourne had moved steadily ahead of their Northern counterparts in recent seasons. That should have a positive impact on the way the event is viewed within Irish League circles 12 months from now.

After seeing his side winning the trophy Linfield manager David Jeffrey ruled out any idea the tournament might prove a stepping-stone to an all-Ireland league. But he appeared to do so on the basis the two associations would not allow their own positions to be threatened and on financial grounds, a reference, one presumes to the concerns shared by other Northern club officials that they could not cope with the demands of such a competition unless they went full-time. That, they feel, would be too great a gamble to take.

What the Setanta Cup showed, however, was there is no reason such a competition could not work if the will required to make it happen was there on both sides of the Border. Notwithstanding the minor scuffles that preceded the weekend's final, there appears to be considerably more tension these days at a Belfast derby game than there is when one of the North's bigger sides travels to the Republic.

There may still be quite some way to go before a leap from a six or eight-team competition, to a 32-county championship could be contemplated but what is certain is a unified league was never going to happen without something like this to smooth the way.

From Shelbourne's point of view the lessons are perhaps more immediate and Saturday's game should serve as a warning.

The 2-0 defeat by Linfield cost the Dublin club around €70,000, not an insignificant amount by the standards of the game here.

If the Eircom League champions fail to raise their performances in July's Champions League qualifiers, however, the damage will be much more severe both in terms of financial loss and reduced prestige.

In last year's ranking ladder the Republic was 39th in the Uefa club competition table with the North seven places further back and so Shelbourne's first-round opponents might be expected to be drawn from a league of the same standard if not a little stronger.

On a better day, Shelbourne's management and players will doubtless argue, and with a European referee, the Dubliners would not have lost so badly on Saturday. But what the game showed is how little room for error there is in the remarkably fragile business plan which is employed when a club here attempts to take things to "the next level".

Pat Fenlon and his players are sure to watch the Linfield match again and see just how it was that Linfield's game plan proved so much more effective than theirs. The worry is, though, that so too will the management and team of whatever club Shelbourne are drawn against in a few weeks' time.