St Patrick's take title to the wire

The post-match press conference was as colourful as ever. Pat Dolan's stream of consciousness, perhaps understandably in the circumstances, reflecting the emotion and excitement of the occasion rather than saying a great deal of what we had just witnessed.

The St Patrick's manager paid tribute to his players and talked about their chances of grabbing the title in Kilkenny next week while taking every available opportunity to refer to Friday night's winner at Tolka Park which had been forced into the net by the arm of Stephen Geoghegan. Vintage Dolan, a worthy follow-up act to what had been at times another vintage performance from his title chasing side - but then it had needed to be.

Needing a victory to force the championship race into the last weekend of the season, the home side had started shakily. True, they had two goals disallowed, the second far more clearly offside than the first, but they then started to lose their way, followed, in the 24th minute, by their defensive composure.

Immediately they were made to pay for it when Brian Byrne slipped David Ward into the area and the 18-year-old chipped the ball past Trevor Wood. Deafening silence time at Richmond Park.

The home side promptly started to show, however, just what it is they're made of. In midfield Eddie Gormley and, particularly, Thomas Morgan beavered away endlessly, while the locals' third man in the centre, Paul Osam preferred to save himself for the more decisive interventions, such as the one he made on 39 minutes to knock the ball home after Ian Gilzean had headed down Trevor Molloy's corner.

The Dubliners' domination continued into the second half as Gilzean duly added a second before Gormley and Morgan linked up wonderfully for the former to make it 3-1 and suddenly Dolan's side's only worry appeared to be that Dundalk would travel home so dispirited that any chance they might have had of upsetting Shelbourne next week would have been killed off.

Jim McLaughin's side had other ideas though and after Doohan had scored a replica of Osam's goal and Ward had shown great control to get in a shot from the midst of three defenders which came off the post it began to look like the locals would be fortunate to hang on.

Dundalk's wide men were certainly looking to be on top at that stage and had Raymond Campbell's crossing been better there is no telling what might have happened, for the home side's defence still looked none too comfortable with the lurking presence of Byrne and Ward.

Dolan's dreams seemed to be under threat once again with eight minutes remaining when a short free kick set David Crawley up for a long range effort which Leon Braithwaite did well to block. The English winger then used his arm to force the ball forward in much the same way Geoghegan had on Friday night before laying it off to Martin Reilly on his right. The substitute fed Gormley who pushed it towards Morgan and his cross was glanced home by Reilly from eight yards out.

That ensured that it would all come down to next Friday night when St Patrick's must win in Kilkenny but, barring a huge margin at Buckley Park, Shelbourne need only draw in Dundalk. On the strength of yesterday's game, Damien Richardson, who watched the proceedings from the stand and who may have just been starting to regret his side having put next weekend's opponents out of both cups as well as beating them twice in the league, will know he can take nothing for granted.

St Patrick's Athletic: Wood; Burke, Moody, Hawkins, Doyle; Morgan, Gormley, Osam; Braithwaite, Gilzean, Molloy. Sub: Reilly for Molloy (72 mins).

Dundalk: Williams; McNulty, Doohan, Brady, Crawley; Campbell, Carlyle, McQuilter, Hoey; Byrne, Ward.

Referee: J Stacey (Athlone).