Derry City dropped out of the League of Ireland title race as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Richmond Park against St Patrick’s Athletic.
That combined with Shelbourne’s 2-1 home win over Derry’s cup final opponents Drogheda United means that hopes of a one-off shootout with Damien Duff’s men at the Brandywell next week are over.
Shels are not confirmed as champions yet with Shamrock Rovers five points behind with a game in hand, but the trophy will either be coming back to Tolka Park or Tallaght Stadium in seven days’ time.
For Pat’s, Brandon Kavanagh’s first-half goal secured an incredible eighth win in a row as they have surged into a European qualification spot.
City had the better of the opening stages without forcing Joseph Anang into a save. The first time either keeper was worked was on 17 minutes when Brian Maher made a simple stop from Aidan Keena.
After riding out a spell of pressure, Derry had a couple of efforts themselves. After Ronan Boyce forced Anang into a good save on 37 minutes, a quickly taken free-kick by Will Patching two minutes later sent Adam O’Reilly in behind. He rounded the goalkeeper but was forced wide and Anto Breslin cleared his goal-bound effort.
It all went wrong for the Candystripes a couple of minutes before the break when, after forcing a good save from Maher, Kavanagh was gifted the ball back by Shane McEleney and made no mistake to send his side into the break in front.
Ruaidhri Higgins introduced Colm Whelan at half-time and the striker made an impact when he rattled the crossbar ten minutes after the break.
Anang had got a crucial touch to push the shot onto the bar and the St. Pat’s keeper would deny Derry again ten minutes later. After a goalmouth scramble, he made stops from Andre Wisdom and Michael Duffy from close range.
The visitors kept Stephen Kenny’s men under pressure without really creating any clear-cut chances and the game was almost put to bed eight minutes from time only for Chris Forrester to fire wide after some lovely trickery on the edge of the box.
As it was, the game’s solitary goal proved enough to end Derry’s title hopes.