While Shamrock Rovers have got off to a slow start in their defence of the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division title, the Hoops got their first win of the campaign on Friday night after grinding out a 1-0 victory at Galway United, in front of the RTÉ cameras.
St Patrick's Athletic also got a 1-0 win at Eamonn Deacy Park but that was way back on the opening night and since then, only one other victory has been forthcoming for Jon Daly's reigning FAI Cup winners in the first six round of matches, that coming against a struggling Dundalk on 8 March.
A 2-1 defeat to high-flying Shelbourne at Richmond Park on Friday was the latest setback for the Saints who, along with Derry City, had come into the season tipped as one of the sides likely to push Shamrock Rovers closest.
Technically speaking they are level on points with Stephen Bradley's side, but the sense is that Rovers will push on and do what they have done during the recent four-in-a-row era.
Which will make it all the more frustrating for Pat's that they haven't made a strong start to put some early pressure on.
Two of the club's former midfielders, Conan Byrne and Keith Treacy, scrutinised the Saints' slow start on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, and one area that stood out was deepest midfielder Jamie Lennon having too many threats to cover by himself in front of the defensive line.
Byrne said: "Watching them over the last number of weeks, I think Jamie Lennon gets exposed as he can't do both - he can't stop the ball into the striker's feet, so let's say against Derry it was (Patrick) Hoban and on Friday it was Sean Boyd - and Matty Smith then is just so clever as a 10 that he can find pockets of space when Lennon is occupied and the other Pat's players in midfield are naive not to go with him, not disciplined enough could be a term used as well.
"That's the thing that I noticed. You see for the second (Shelbourne) goal, getting Boyd into feet and the amount of space that he had to lay the ball out to (Will) Jarvis on the left hand side."
On the ball, Byrne feels Pat's play is "very disjointed" after a winter when there was a significant amount of turnover among the playing contingent.
"(Ruairi) Keating can get isolated at times, didn't look like scoring the other night, no real chances and that's worrying as a striker that you're not getting those chances," he said, adding that Keating's goals against Derry and Dundalk were both of his own making rather than as a result of creativity behind him.
Treacy pointed to the box midfield shape as an issue that is making things a bit more difficult for Keating, whereas more width could play to the centre-forward's strengths.
"What Conan is saying is absolutely spot on because Ruairi Keating has a couple of goals this season but he's not exactly missing chances," he said.
"Sometimes when strikers are missing chances, you can say, 'Well, they're getting into the positions, he's missing them and (the goals) will come'.
"The goal against Derry was a bad back pass and a brilliant finish from him but he didn't really have any chances in the game. He was fairly isolated.
"And he scored the following week but again he didn't have a whole host of chances. He's sort of living off scraps up there. He does look isolated.
"Brandon Kavanagh is trying to get closer to him, (Jason) McClelland is trying to get closer to him but when the ball goes up and he's got two or three centre-halves just swamping him, it's so hard.
"Sean Boyd does it really, really well but what Shelbourne do is when that ball goes, they have people there and they eat up the ground so quickly and Sean Boyd, even if he's not going to win the ball, he makes sure the defender doesn't get a clean header so he's heading it down into a 50:50 area, so Pat's have an awful lot to improve on.
"The box in midfield, I can see the merits of it and see why people would be attracted to it and play it, but being an ex-winger for me with the likes of Jake Mulraney who came off the bench and scored, I think you use width. I think width is Pat's friend and Pat's should always play with wingers for me."
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