St Patrick's reign goes on

On the pitch at Richmond Park there was only Jeff Clarke's second-half winner between them, but afterwards it was a very different story. In one dressing-room euphoria, in the other heartbreak: Bray relegated, St Patrick's champions. It was as if somebody discovered they had the winning lotto numbers while attending a funeral.

Needless to say Pat Dolan looked as though he was the lotto winner. The driving force behind St Patrick's continued rise, the club's chief executive turned compere despite the loss of his voice.

It didn't matter much, though, for the 7,000 or so supporters who came along for the party would have cheered anything at that stage. Dolan croaking through a list of players and officials was actually going down rather well.

At his side, Liam Buckley was beaming with pride. For the first time in more than decade the Harp Lager National League title had been successfully defended and, over the course of the season as a whole, his players had achieved their goal in some style.

A new record number of points, just 21 goals conceded, and three wins over their closest rivals. When Buckley says that his side deserved it, it would take a pretty dedicated Cork City fan to put up much of an argument.

"Frankly," said the manager afterwards when asked to name a key figure in the team's success, "I think they were all fantastic. Trevor Wood has been outstanding, (Packie) Lynch, (Colin) Hawkins and (Stephen) McGuinness at the back, Paul Osam has probably had the best season of his career.

"Then there's the rest of the midfield and players like Trevor Molloy and Ian Gilzean up front. I'm thrilled with the way everybody has performed over the last few months and delighted that they've come through to win it again for the club."

Yesterday's win left St Patrick's three points clear of Cork City in the final league table, with City's valiant 3-0 defeat of Shamrock Rovers at Turner's Cross, which would have been enough to steal the title away from the Dubliners had Bray beaten the leaders, counting for nothing in the end.

Elsewhere there were mixed fortunes for the teams with something still to play for. Sligo's win over Derry combined with Bohemians' loss at Belfield means that Bohemians face another anxious couple of weeks before their fate is finally decided in the relegation play-offs.

Shelbourne lost 2-0 to Waterford at Tolka Park, but still qualified for the InterToto Cup.

It was at Richmond Park, however, where the stark contrast between winners and losers was best illustrated. As the celebrations went on just a few feet away, Bray manager Pat Devlin attempted to console his players while looking fairly close to inconsolable himself.

"Yeah, I have to say, it's a huge blow to be relegated," he said. "We invested heavily in the team this year and we really didn't expect it to happen, but lady luck deserted us. Even then, we had our chances before today and we didn't take them. The only thing now is that we have the Cup final. We'll win that, at least. I have no doubts about that at this stage. Sure, isn't it the least we deserve?"