Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley insists that the SSE Airtricity Premier Division race is still very much alive, despite his side's ten-point lead at the top of the table.
Rovers moved ten points clear of second-placed Bohemians at the top of the table courtesy of a 2-0 win over Derry City, who along with Drogheda, trail the Hoops by 11 points.
The Candystripes had the better of the first half but came undone on the turnaround with Rory Gaffney notching a brace.
Michael Duffy hit the post in the first half but that was as good as things got for Derry who conceded two minutes after half-time and never looked like getting back into the game after Gaffney scored his second goal on 65 minutes.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport afterward Bradley was full of praise for his side. "I thought tonight was a proper game, I thought it felt like a proper game.
"We both started okay, but they obviously had the Michael Duffy chance off the post. Second half then I thought we completely dominated the game.
"The space was there we just weren’t seeing in clearly in the first half, second half we did and we were just completely ruthless."
The match had the feel of a major milestone on the way to the title but for Bradley, it was just another three points.
The Rovers boss spoke of the importance of building up a big lead at the top of the table as his side turn their focus back to Europe and hopefully securing group stage football again.
"No, there's a long way to go," he replied when asked if the win over Derry killed off their opponent’s title hopes.
"There’s a lot of games to go.
"We won’t start calling [the league title]. What we will do is try to extend the lead and that's why tonight’s result is so important.
"We’re going into Europe and we want to be going deep. We want to play Thursday and Sunday and that gets difficult.
"The more you can give yourself a buffer, the better. So tonight was important."
Rovers now travel to Kosovo for Thursday’s Europa Conference Third qualifying round tie with Ballkani and Bradley is hoping that Aaron McEniff will be with them after he was forced of injured against Derry at half-time.
" Aaron just felt the back of his hamstring, so we just need to have a look at that," the Rovers boss said. "He said he thinks he got it in time, there wasn't anything really major, but it just felt tight."
