While he has been able to sit back and admire his resurgent team stitch together a magnificent five-match winning sequence, manager Stephen Kenny has admitted his frustration with the prospect of his free-flowing side losing their rhythm.
St Pat’s are very much in the race for a European place and – whisper it – maybe even the title itself.
If the top two of Shelbourne and Derry City keep dropping points and not getting the wins the Saints are currently hoovering up, they cannot be ruled out of the equation entirely.
Contrast that to a depressing 10-match sequence in the league in April and May when they won just once.
Yet, Kenny’s side have now gone on an amazing run, with Monday’s absorbing 3-2 defeat of pacesetters Shels fuelling their momentum.
They now sit in fifth spot, seven points adrift of Damien Duff’s side but just three shy of Derry, who are second in the table, as the race for Europe gets really interesting.
Finish with another four wins from their remaining games – however challenging that may be – and the Saints will match that amazing run of nine straight league victories they reeled off in the 2015 season.
Kenny admits he has some regret that there isn’t another month left in the season. “Even for myself, I’m finding a rhythm. Of course, we’d love that [rhythm to continue], but that’s not the reality, so that’s the way it goes,” he said.
Even if it’s unlikely they will end up champions themselves, St Pat’s will have a major say in where the title goes, with Derry the visitors to Richmond Park on October 25.
“We’re not even thinking about that [the title], it’s not our concern. All we can do is keep winning and let’s see [where it leaves us]. We’ve still a lot to do and we don’t play for two weeks now.
“Some players who haven’t been playing will feature in the Leinster Senior Cup final on Tuesday. Then we’ll get ready for Bohs, which is a third Dublin derby away from home in a row. I’m looking forward to that.”
Galway United and Sligo Rovers are also in with a real shout of Europe. “We don’t know if it’s three teams or four teams [vying for Europe],” Kenny added. “But we’re not in the driving seat, and we’ve tough games as well. We’re in good form, but we’ve tough games – four tough games; Bohs, Galway and Derry and we finish in Sligo. So we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. We’d rather keep going, but we’ve a two-week break now.
“We look like a team that will score a lot of goals in every game.”
