For all the talk of a more open title race this season, the league table looks much the same this week as it did a year ago with Dundalk just a point short on their tally after eight games and still two clear of a chasing pack that includes just a couple of different names.

Then, they had just played Shamrock Rovers, tonight's opponents, in what was to prove to be one of the season's most dramatic encounters with Stephen Kenny's side clinging on for a draw in the wake of Gary Rogers' sending off after having led 2-0.

The goalkeeper is hoping that this visit to Tallaght will be a little less eventful but, he suspects, it will be no easier as the champions are catching Pat Fenlon’s side off the back of a big win at Bohemians. Confidence in both camps will be high but Rogers likes to think the visitors might make away advantage tell in the end.

Another test

“Yeah, we have been doing better away from home than at Oriel,” he says, “but I think that’s just down to the way teams approach games when they are going to visit the champions; they look to make themselves hard to break down. Although even allowing for that, we haven’t scored as many goals as we would have liked.”

On the road, there have been no such problems with four scored in each of their last two outings but Dundalk head to Tallaght, where they are unbeaten in the league for a couple of years, knowing it is another test of their mettle.

“The title’s not going to be won or lost in this game,” says Rogers, “but we’d love to go there and take the three points because of the message it would send out. The points would only be one small step in the right direction but Rovers are a good side, they are going to be right up there at the end of the season and to beat them way now away would be an important boost to our confidence.”

That, to be fair, survived the home defeat by Cork well enough and is likely to be undamaged by the tightness of last weekend’s win over Sligo.

All in all, things are going as well as could be expected for Kenny and his men given the extent to which they have become the team that others want to test themselves against.

“I think we have to be pleased with where we stand given that we’re going for our third league title in a row.

“ It’s never going to be easy and the other sides are always looking to improve so we have to as well but to be couple of points clear at the top at this stage of the season is a pretty good situation to be in.”

Two-nil up a year ago was a good position too – but it didn’t last.

“I’m not planning on getting sent off this time,” says Rogers.