Poor SDLP vote management in the two constituencies of Newry and Armagh and Upper Bann meant that a strong first-preference vote did not translate into additional seats, and Sinn Fein benefited.
A feature of both counts was the poor level of transfers across the sectarian divide. In Upper Bann, for example, Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP was the only candidate not to receive a single transfer from the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble.
In Newry and Armagh, the SDLP and Sinn Fein ended up with two seats each, with the Ulster Unionists and the DUP each taking one.
In Upper Bann the Deputy Grand Master of the Orange Order and anti-agreement candidate, Mr Denis Watson, took a seat as predicted. The final tally was two UUP, one DUP, one United Unionist (Mr Watson) and one each for the SDLP and Sinn Fein.
One of Mr Trimble's three running mates, a Donaghcloney farmer, Mr George Savage, started off with only 669 first-preference votes, but won a seat in the end after picking up enough transfers along the way to come ahead of his colleague, Mr Sam Gardiner, who had 1,097 first preferences. The third UUP candidate, Mr Mark Neale, had a devastating defeat with only 455 first preferences.
Despite a strong showing, Mrs Ruth Allen, one of the few DUP female candidates in the election, finally ceded the seat to her running mate, Mr Mervyn Carrick.
The SDLP suffered a disappointment in Upper Bann in that Ms Rodgers failed to bring in her running mate, Mr Mel Byrne. The second nationalist seat went instead to Sinn Fein's Ms Dara O'Hagan, a researcher and PhD student, whose mother Bernadette had proved there was almost a quota there in the Westminster election last year.
The SDLP suffered a similar disappointment in Newry and Armagh. Although the party's share of the first-preference vote was 35 per cent, its vote management was much less efficient than that of Sinn Fein, whose three candidates were all within 500 votes of each other at the start.
This kept them all long enough in the race to ensure that its 25 per cent share of the vote brought in two candidates, Mr Conor Murphy and Mr Pat McNamee. Mr Seamus Mallon's long-term political assistant, Mr John Fee, took the second SDLP seat. "It went down to the wire for the last seat," said Mr Mallon.
Mr Paul Berry, a 22-year-old gospel singer, won a seat early for the DUP and Mr Danny Kennedy took the UUP seat here.