And their in-form winger Jake Mulraney says there’s no reason why his side can’t sustain their winning run long enough to bring the league title back to Inchicore.
Stephen Kenny took over a struggling Saints side in May and a return of one point from his first three games suggested that avoiding a relegation playoff would be the height of their domestic ambitions for the season. The most likely path to success – retaining the FAI Cup – was closed off as a route with a first-round exit.
But Kenny has turned the Saints into genuine contenders. Off the back of a six-game winning run, they are the in-form side in the league as the last three rounds of fixtures lie in wait. Of course, there are obstacles in their way – first up a game at home to a dogged Galway United, who have suffered just one loss in nine.
Yet a successful sprint over the finish line is possible for Pat’s. “The way the league is shaping up, I think anyone could nick it. Form in this league is massive and momentum is huge.
“We’re playing teams around us in the last three games. It’s massive that we’re in good form coming into this final three games. Anyone can do it, so why can’t we,” says Dubliner Mulraney, whose personal form earned him the vote for September’s player of the month by SSE Airtricity Soccer Writers Ireland.
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“There are three games to go and it would probably help if there were five or six, but yeah that’s probably the reason why we’re flying under the radar a bit as we’re running out of games as such. It’s a mad old league and I think anyone could do it.
“It’s gone from that [relegation threat] to Europe to potentially having a pop at the League, so it’s been a very good few months for us and hopefully we can take that into the last three games.
“The situation we were in when the gaffer came in was night and day compared to how we are now in terms of position in the table and points.
“It’s been a crazy league. It’s been mad at the top, so now coming into the final three games, we do obviously have a half-decent chance of nicking it.
“Obviously, we need results elsewhere to go our way. We still need to win all three games to give ourselves a chance. It’s definitely a lot better than it had been,” he says.
Given Kenny’s well-known fondness for wide players, his arrival and the fact that Mulraney was already in the squad seemed like a good match, with Kenny previously revealing that Mulraney, then playing in the MLS, was on the radar when he was Ireland manager.
“It definitely gave the forward boys a bit of a boost knowing that,” he says of Kenny’s reputation for having an expansive style that treasured, not excluded, wide men.
“When he came in me and him had a little chat about it, just the way he likes to play and that and it was great to hear. Obviously, it took a couple of weeks to implement it and for him to get used to the team and for us to get used to him. After that then we’ve been able to kick on big time.”
Of course, Galway – who themselves are in contention for the league – would love nothing more than to upset all this title talk around Inchicore as they visit Richmond Park, with a note of caution from Pat’s.
“I think Galway are very much in the conversation, they are a nightmare for teams.
“They are in the conversation, a hard team to play against, one of the toughest in the league. Their playing style is not like anyone else in the league, it’s not something I am used to playing against, but it’s very effective,” he added.
