Cork City's exploits at home and abroad this season have elicited the praise it deserves. Benefiting from Damien Richardson's philosophy of attacking football, Cork have led the Premier Division since the end of May and remain favourites to lift their first title since 1993.
Their defeat of Shelbourne at Turner's Cross on Monday week last has seemingly ended any aspirations of a third title in succession for Pat Fenlon's side, who were almost unbackable pre-season favourites.
On Thursday, Cork City will proudly fly the league's flag in Europe with every chance of knocking Swedish league Leaders Djurgarden IF out of the Uefa Cup to reach the first round proper of that competition.
Cork have rightly grabbed the headlines, but surely few in real touch with the domestic game would argue against the renaissance of Derry City being granted the tag of "story of the season" to date.
Since their championship winning success under Felix Healy in 1997, Derry had slipped away to the ranks of also-rans in the title race - finishing no higher than fifth in the eight subsequent seasons.
Indeed, in recent years, the Candystripes have struggled in the lower half of the table, at times flirting a little too close to the relegation places for comfort. The season before last they survived play-offs with Limerick and neighbours Finn Harps.
All the more remarkable then, that, in just a year under manager Stephen Kenny, the club has been utterly revitalised. A decent run of results in the first series of matches, which placed them fourth in the table, was passed off by most as a lucky run of form that couldn't last. But the interlopers have stayed the course, improving further during the second phase of games.
Friday's deserved 3-1 defeat of Cork in front of 5,000 at a vibrant Brandywell has moved Derry to within three points of the leaders and convinced all that they are most definitely championship contenders now.
Their win over Cork City sees Derry unbeaten in 15 matches in all competitions. Some on Foyleside may even be casting their memories back to 1989, when, under Jim McLaughlin, Derry City won the treble of championship, FAI Cup and League Cup.
Despite having won the league and finished second in his two full seasons in charge at Dalymount Park, being sacked by Bohemians in July, 2004 - effectively after one, albeit expensive, defeat in Europe - was a deeply distressing experience for Kenny.
That he has recovered and reinvigorated the fortunes of Derry in such a short space of time bears ample testament to his managerial ability and character.
Derry began the season as 33 to 1 outsiders for the title. Even more incredulous were the bookmakers placing Kenny as favourite to be the first managerial casualty of the new season at 3 to 1.
As he did in playing a major role in laying the foundation for what Longford Town is today, Kenny has fully applied his tactically astute and methodical style of management at Derry.
Following his appointment, he immediately moved from Dublin to live locally and, seeing that his playing squad was spread over nine counties, insisted on the need for most, ideally all, of his players to relocate there too.
The chequebook has played little or no part in the transformation. The players brought in were effectively cast-offs from England, such as skilful ex-youth internationals Killian Brennan and Brian Cash. Barry Molloy and, most recently, Pat McCourt were also cajoled to join their home town club.
The bulk of the squad remained with the team still built around club veterans Peter Hutton, Seán Hargan, Eamon Doherty and Gary Beckett and more recently acquired stalwarts such as Clive Delaney and Ciarán Martyn. The response from training as a collective unit is all too evident, with Kenny evincing the very best from the varied talents at his disposal.The league table doesn't lie and Derry are where they are on merit.
As we enter an intriguing final round of fixtures, Derry City's trip to Turner's Cross on the last day of the season looks very interesting indeed.
