Two City clubs set the pace in the Eircom Premier Division, but they come, not from Dublin, but Cork and Derry respectively. Both sides continued their successful campaigns with comfortable three nil home victories in the last series of fixtures.

Cork, showing no obvious concern following the departure of leading scorer Kevin Doyle to Reading, scored a first half goal through former Reading player Joe Gamble followed by two second half goals against Shamrock Rovers. Derry’s victory over UCD followed a similar pattern with their one goal half time lead being embellished by two second half strikes from Ciaran Martyn, a former UCD player.

Champions Shelbourne travelled south to Bray just 48 hours after their Champions League encounter with Glentoran and took an early two goal lead. The exertions of the Glentoran game seemed to take their toll in the second half and Bray scored twice to earn a point.

Match of the Weekend was undoubtedly the encounter between fourth placed Bohemians and fifth placed Drogheda United at Dalymount Park. In an entertaining match, played in fine conditions, a confident Bohemians took a one goal lead into the interval. The second half provided some excellent passages of football from both of these fully professional teams with the home side just about shading the contest until mid way through the half when Drogheda struck twice in two minutes to claim the lead.

The contest continued to ebb and flow and reached a thrilling climax with a Bohemians equaliser with two minutes to go which was swiftly followed by a second and winning goal seconds before the final whistle from former senior international Dominic Foley who joined Bohemians at the start of the season.

The remaining two fixtures saw mid table sides Longford Town and St Patrick’s Athletic both achieve I nil home victories over bottom of the table sides Finn Harps and Waterford United.

The next series of matches kick off on Friday evening next when buoyant Derry City travel to the Regional Sports Centre in Waterford to face the local United. Waterford are currently experiencing very trying times and Brendan Rea will take command of the team for his first match becoming the Club’s third manager in a little over five weeks.

Friday evening also sees the rejuvenated Bohemians entertain Dublin rivals UCD at Dalymount Park while on Saturday evening, Finn Harps will be hoping to catch defending champions Shelbourne on the back foot following their Champions League match.

The weekend schedule will be completed on Sunday afternoon when UEFA Cup participants Longford Town and Cork City travel to Drogheda United and St Patrick’s Athletic respectively for what are likely to be very difficult encounters. The final fixture will see beleaguered Shamrock Rovers head down the coast where Bray Wanderers will ‘welcome ‘ them to the Carlisle Grounds.