So, the key to looking like league champions over the course of the season is winning games when you're not playing well, is it? You'd have to suspect that Damien Richardson would give you an argument on that one if you met him in the street today.
On Friday, his Shamrock Rovers side lost a game they should have won against a Cork City team that, a couple of weeks before the two clubs meet again in the FAI Cup, have now beaten the league leaders twice.
The three-point advantage the Dubliners still enjoy at the top of the table, though, provides Richardson with what may well prove to be a much-needed cushion ahead of derby games against Shelbourne and St Patrick's Athletic either side of the cup tie.
City, of course, deserve a good deal of credit for their win at the weekend. True, they were outplayed for most of the second half and needed a little luck from time to time in order to get way with conceding just one goal.
Rovers have given poorer performances this season while still winning though, and it took physical strength and considerable self-belief for City to survive a battering and then win the match by taking their chances.
Much the same can be said of St Patrick's Athletic, who most people now expect to be back in the championship race by the start of the new year on the basis of the return of perhaps six of the nine points they lost in the Paul Marney affair.
Having performed so shakily against Monaghan a week ago, Pat Dolan's side pulled off much the same trick as City on Friday evening at Dalymount, where they finished the few scoring opportunities that came their way before stealing off home with the points.
The upshot is that, while Rovers have no home, they lead the table; Shelbourne's manager is on sick leave and they lead the chase, and St Patrick's Athletic are embroiled the longest running controversy of the season, yet they are expected to mount a challenge over the closing third of the campaign.
All of which leaves Bohemians, for whom the only distraction is the growing sense of crisis that surrounds the club.
Pete Mahon is probably one of the most popular figures within the domestic game but at last week's cup draw he was not attempting to hide the fact that his position at the moment is far from comfortable.
Results since the start of the season have been disappointing, but the one win and seven draws from 13 league games played since mid-September is nightmarish for a club that, with a weekly wage bill said to extend to more than £15,000 a week, badly needs to qualify for Europe next summer.
Clearly, there have been problems that have been beyond Mahon's control, not least the endless of run of defensive injuries and the negative influence of Roddy Collins's sniping from Carlisle, but with Glen Crowe's goalscoring holding up fairly well throughout the period, neither factor is quite enough to justify the extent of the slump.
The six goals scored in the league cup against Dublin City as well as the three a few days later against Galway in the league must have seemed at the time to Mahon like an opportunity for his team to turn the corner.
Rovers promptly killed off the revival a week later, though, after which draws with Monaghan (away) and Dundalk (at home) compounded the misery.
The hope now, from the point of view of Mahon and his many well-wishers, will be that a decent result in Longford on Saturday followed by a cup victory there a week later will provide a basis on which the team can build for the remainder of the season.
The fact that the injury problems finally appear to be clearing up and Colin Hawkins has, in any case, improved his options at the back certainly appears to give cause for some cautious optimism.
emalone@irish-times.ie
