Last night's cup draw may be the bigger news just now but even while it was taking place it was difficult to forget a remarkable weekend in the league.

The games that brought us past the halfway point in the championship also threw up a clear front-runner for the first time this season. Most of the players at Shelbourne know what it is to have their noses in front mid-campaign and end up empty-handed come May. But Dermot Keely, one suspects, doesn't quite grasp the concept.

The last time he led a team to the league, Dundalk plodded to the title, beating Galway on the last day of the season while Derry and Shelbourne fumbled. And now he appears to have brought that calm disregard for what is going on around him to Tolka Park. The purists may still have doubts but the majority at the club may feel that they are finally hammering out the results required.

To reach this stage of the year unbeaten is quite an achievement but the way in which Shelbourne have seen off their two most serious rivals has been the clearest indication yet that they can go all the way.

On Sunday Cork City manager Dave Barry described the 2-1 home defeat by the Dubliners as a "pretty bad beating" while current champions St Patrick's Athletic will have been dismayed with the way Friday's game unfolded.

For a start, St Patrick's manager Liam Buckley made a tactical error when he opted to play just Trevor Molloy up front. Leaving Eddie Gormley on the bench for what turned out to be such a physical battle was a questionable decision too, giving the tightest back four in the country a night off from defensive duties.

In the circumstances, Shelbourne's dominanace in the first period was scarcely a surprise. The fact that the home side comfortably held their own when the going got tougher showed, perhaps, a steel that has previously been missing.

The feeling on the St Patrick's side seems to be that their team was hard done by and the decision to send off Trevor Croly certainly dented their hopes of salvaging a draw. The fact remains, though, that in terms of possession and scoring chances, the northsiders deserved to win.

If Keely was happy afterwards he must have found it difficult to keep his feet on the ground by Sunday evening. Bohemians' latest slip-up will have provided another boost for everyone at Tolka but Cork City's failure to secure more than a draw at Belfield must have been even more welcome.

Cork looked comfortably the better side in the first half at Belfield and should have had their own title challenge firmly back on the rails by the interval. Everyone knows the trouble that the southerners generally seem to have with the students but still, if you were told that Pat Morley and John Caulfield would both score you'd find it hard to believe that they didn't win, never mind that they could easily have been beaten for a third consecutive time.

The upshot is that Shelbourne have a five-point lead, a margin that provides some room for slippage over the coming months. They may well need it for they have not always been as impressive as they were on Friday. At the back, despite their good record, they can still have off days while up front the strikers have not bagged nearly as many goals as might have been expected.

Away to Waterford and Shamrock Rovers recently Shelbourne played poorly yet still came away with results, an indication of their improved ability to thrash something out on the bad days.

There is also the matter of Cork City and St Patrick's Athletic, who won't see such a gap at this stage of the season as spelling the end to their ambitions.

Like David O'Leary, they'll point out that you get nothing for being top of the table at this stage of the season but, like any of the Leeds United manager's rivals, they'd be happy to swop places.