While many eyes were on the Dublin derby between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians last Friday, another crucial encounter was playing out at Tolka Park.
Shelbourne v Derry City could not be billed so much as a meeting of clubs in crisis but certainly one where both needed a win quickly to arrest a difficult start to their respective campaigns.
In the end, the Candystripes prevailed 2-1 away from home, leaving Shels seventh, closer to the bottom of the table than to leaders Shamrock Rovers.
Joey O'Brien's side are now on a run of three defeats in a row in which they have conceded eight mostly avoidable goals.
The game proved to be a microcosm of what has cost Shelbourne at the start of this season, according to David McMillan, who joined ex-Dundalk team-mate Richie Towell to analyse the weekend's SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division fixtures on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
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"It's a hard one to analyse because you feel Shels should have won the game. There were a lot of positives for Shels but they end up conceding two terrible, terrible goals," McMillan said.
"In fairness to Derry for the position they're in, I was going to the game and I hadn't seen much of them and I was thinking , 'Are these (players) chucking it, are they not fighting for their manager (this season)?'
"But they put the effort in, they're working hard. They weren't a team that looked like they weren't playing for their manager. So from a Derry perspective, I thought that was a positive.
"But for Shels, it's back to the drawing board. They're in a bad run of it and I think they have a serious squad there, so they really just need to solve it.
"They've switched to a 4-4-2 this week, it didn't quite work out. They played (Jack) Henry-Francis on the right but it didn't quite happen. They just need to find a settled 11 and an 11 (Joey O'Brien) trusts and build on it really."
The word 'trust' was something Towell picked up on in regard to the factors behind their porous defence.
"I don't think there's a lot of trust there. You look at set plays, the goals they concede are ridiculous, honestly," said the former midfielder.
"I think when Damien Duff walked out, big alarm bells were going off in my head, thinking, 'Why has that happened?'
"Because everything from the outside looked good. But he'd obviously seen things in-house and he's thinking, 'This is not how you win leagues or you progress a team'.
"And you can see that transferring it on to the pitch with people not putting tackles in, not clearing their lines properly and I heard Damien's comments (on Virgin Media about players letting Joey O'Brien down) and that's really concerning.
"Because on the flip side of that, I heard what (Derry City manager) Tiernan Lynch said and he's saying, 'My players are giving me absolutely everything. I would take that all day every day over a talented group of players and I think that's what Shelbourne have at the moment.
"I think they have a lot of talented players but they're not doing the nitty-gritty stuff and you can see it, they're getting punished."
Injuries have been an issue at both ends of the pitch but they did have a key leader in Paddy Barrett back on Friday after a spell out.
McMillan believes the defender will be vital in trying to shore up Shels' defence after nine games on the sidelines.
"I actually thought Paddy was probably Shels' standout player (on Friday). He was two months out, came back, kept (Josh) Thomas very, very quiet and defended really well," he said.
"He had a header early in the game and then right at the end which was a planned move to cut it back to him.
"It's funny you're cutting it back to your centre-half for a shot. If you (Richie) were playing, you'd certainly be the one taking the shot!
"He was excellent, Paddy, and he will certainly help and I think they do need leaders in that team because pointing to the goals and the half tackles, you need someone rip-roaring at players for that. You need voices saying, 'This isn't acceptable.'"
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