St Patrick's Athletic manager Jon Daly did not shy away from the reality that his side are playing their way into League of Ireland Premier Division title race contention after a 2-0 win at Sligo Rovers on Friday night.
The Inchicore-based club's victory moved them to within a point of SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division leaders and reigning champions Shamrock Rovers, who play their game in hand on Sunday at home to Cork City.
With the Hoops struggling for form, other clubs will be hopeful of mounting a concerted challenge and Pat's are well placed to do so with ten league games remainining.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport at the Showgrounds, Daly did not play down the sense that the Saints have an outside chance of being involved in the title battle if they can work their way through fixtures like next week's clash with Bohemians, which will be live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.
"You're never going to shy away from the fact that we're a point off top of the league now," he said.
"We're there or thereabouts and we're well aware that the league is tight. I think it's nine points between top and sixth so I think everybody is in the title race if I'm being honest.
"Anyone who puts a good run of results together has got a chance to finish near the top of the league.
"We won't get carried away. It's three points and we've got a massive game now next week against Bohs and then after that, we'll focus on the next game."
After their 2-0 loss to St Pat's, frustrated Sligo boss John Russell reflects on a night of possession but no end product, an all too familiar tale for the club this season. pic.twitter.com/3qbYI7vyMd
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Daly's Sligo counterpart John Russell expressed his disappointment at a result which keeps the Bit 'O Red seventh and well out of contention for a top-half finish.
"Second half, we needed to penetrate more, work the keeper in that final third and that's been our Achilles heel this year, getting players into dangerous areas. We need to do it more often and we didn't do that tonight."
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