On Soccer:The winner of last night's Setanta Cup semi-final carried with it the additional prize of home advantage in Saturday week's cup final, but they will hardly regard that as a decisive factor after watching their opponents, Drogheda United, win the competition's other semi-final away from home last week.

Paul Doolin's side not only showed a good deal of resilience to come through some difficult spells early on against Patrick's Athletic but outplayed their hosts in the closing stages and secured their place in the tournament final thanks to a fine Eamon Zayed finish after a good build up eight minutes from the end of extra time.

Successfully defending the Setanta Cup would be another feather in the club's collective cap but the quality of their football combined with their endurance on the night suggested they might achieve a good deal more than that before the year is out.

The club's pursuit of a first league title has already been boosted by the misfortune of others. Shelbourne's close season implosion removed perhaps the greatest obstacle while Cork City's inability to register two highly gifted midfielders weakened their squad and a series of goalkeeping mishaps has left Derry City with a sizeable amount of ground to make up during the months ahead.

While others have faltered, St Patrick's Athletic have make the early running and on the evidence provided so far, the Richmond Park outfit could yet mount a very serious challenge for the title.

United, on the other hand, look to be a little further down the road in terms of the development of a winning team. True, two of their most consistent players in recent weeks- Stuart Byrne and Ollie Cahill - have only just arrived but both are sufficiently good to quickly settle into new surroundings.

The depth of the squad has been amply illustrated over the past couple of months. Doolin has used 22 played in 15 games to date and none could be accused of having looked lost.

Injuries have contributed heavily to a situation in which only one player, Simon Webb, has started every match but Damien Lynch and Shane Robinson have, like Cahill and Byrne, gone very close with the result that, for all their problems United have been consistently able to field teams built solidly around experienced players of very strong character.

The team's midfield has been relatively unaffected by the difficulties but in defence they have coped well with the absence of highly influential figures like Graham Gartland and Jason Gavin with Steven Gray among the team's outstanding performers in Inchicore where Byrne also highlighted his value to a club by filling in well at right back.

Somewhat inevitably after scoring the only goal last Monday, Zayed received a good deal of attention afterwards and his form so far this season must be exciting for supporters of a team that has previously lacked a really regular scorer.

While Declan O'Brien has consistently fended off challenges for his place from newcomers, Zayed is now starting to show signs of fulfilling the potential he showed while at Bray and six goals from eight starts and five appearances from the bench is a pretty healthy return from a 23 year-old who is rising to his manager's challenge to become a stronger, more rounded player.

Though the fitness of the team generally has allowed United to play at a tempo most opponents struggle to live with, it is the greater number of goals scored that has been central to the club's early season showing.

Fourth in the league two years ago and third in 2006, Drogheda's failings have essentially been entirely obvious: they scored less and conceded more than their rivals. This time they may not have, somewhat understandably, matched the division's best defences, but they are joint top scorers with 16. It might have taken them 300 minutes of football to find the net for the first time this year but since then there has been very little looking back.

Like Doolin's men, Pat Fenlon's Derry have conceded eight in the league so far but the figures are slightly misleading as United have managed nine clean sheets and Friday's draw with Cork marked the first tie this year that they have scored but not won.

Whether they can keep it up remains to be seen but the signs so far are extremely positive. Stephen Bradley, Glen Fitzpatrick and Brian Shelley are among the other players to have hit form during the past couple of months and while a couple of the injury victims, most notably Shane Barrett, will be missing for a long time, there does appear to be the depth to sustain challenges in every competition.

For progressing things that far Doolin deserves considerable credit. He has, of course, been heavily backed by the club's directors - Vincent Hoey, Chris Byrne, Eugene O'Connor and Jim McArdle - something that proved of critical importance when he raided first Bohemians and then Shelbourne to pick up proven winners.

Last season there were reports that the wage bill was running at around €42,000 a week and the arrival of Byrne, Cahill and Richie Byrne will have reduced it but so far the club's owners have done nothing to suggest that they don't know what they are doing.

Their plan relocate to a greenfield site outside the town is well advanced and will, they believe, transform United's business model by providing it with a variety of revenue streams. It will, it is anticipated, set an example for others to follow although well before then, it seems, they might have established themselves as pace setters in the more traditional footballing sense.