The regular shuffle at the top of the table ended early this week; this win for St Patrick's cancelling out Shelbourne's on Thursday and sending Pat Dolan's side to the top again. The rest are left to scurry about in search of the crumbs.

As far as the big prize is concerned, the only question now is which of the two Dublin outfits will crack first in the race for the finish.

Going into this game, however, Dolan had, he admitted afterwards, somewhat shorter term questions on his mind. Pressed about the quality of the entertainment on show he preferred to emphasise the extent of his team's achievement.

At other times the St Patrick's boss has complained, sometimes with some justification, that his side do not get the credit they deserve for the brand of football they play.

Last night, he conceded, the beautiful game was low on the list of priorities. The Saints, he concluded, produce their fair share of crackers but this was all about whether they could beat the champions.

Whether they had what it takes to go back to the top of the table. "The answer to that is an emphatic yes," he claimed, entitled to be happy with what he had just witnessed, even if the emphatic bit seemed to be pushing it just a bit.

The fact was that in a disappointing contest City had had their chances to get something from this game. A goal down from the first half, Felix Healy's side found themselves in much the same predicament as on Tuesday. Plenty of possession, plenty of time to push the ball about, but when it came to unlocking the door to the St Patrick's defence, the keys, once again, were nowhere to be found.

As it happened, full-back Eamonn Doherty enjoyed the bulk of the City chances which gives some idea of the determination with which the visitors were pushing forward. Four times the 23year-old let loose from around the edge of the area and, though two were well placed, neither of them required anything too acrobatic on Trevor Wood's part to complete the saves.

It also, however, gives a hint of the visiting striker's form of late. It was the cup win over Rockmount when one of their front-runners last scored and after the loss of Liam Coyle, who has produced a couple of crackers against these opponents over the past couple of seasons, last night the northerners didn't quite seem to have the know-how inside the box to beat a solid defence and very polished goalkeeper.

Their best chance in the end fell to Gary Beckett whose shot in the dying minutes was parried well by Trevor Wood before Keith Doyle cleared the danger. Their hosts, to be fair, had gone that close on at least a couple of occasions in the opening period when, after a disjointed start, they gradually began to establish an edge over City.

Derry, with Gavin Dykes injured and Paul Curran dropped, played two youngsters at the heart of defence but Robert Bell and Darren Kelly rose to the challenge while Robbie Brunton became embroiled in an enthralling battle with the impressive Leon Braithwaite out wide.

Honours were just about even between the two approaching the close of the half when a quick piece of thinking by the Englishman with a throw-in sent Thomas Morgan away down the wing.

His cross was good and Trevor Molloy might have done better with it before Eddie Gormely arrived to make amends by striking a shot which Tony O'Dowd did well to push on to his bar.

A minute later, though, the home side were pushing forward again and this time a temporary loss of concentration by the Derry back four was to prove expensive.

Momentarily the ball bobbled about in a packed area and when nobody cleared, it was pushed out towards the right hand side. Braithwaite lifted a cross to the far post where Ian Gilzean was waiting to nod home his ninth goal of the campaign. It was enough to send Dolan home a happy man.