Shamrock Rovers already have one hand on title
While the League of Ireland season is only just past halfway, Richie Towell reckons the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division title race is already showing signs of being done and dusted.
His former club Shamrock Rovers earned back-to-back wins over reigning champions Shelbourne and Drogheda United over the past few days and sit nine points clear of bitter rivals Bohemians, who albeit do have two games in hand.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, ex-Dundalk and Hoops midfielder Towell said Rovers are showing real signs of building up a head of steam while most of their erstwhile rivals are struggling to find momentum.
"I think at the moment they're in cruise control. They're absolutely cruising it," he said.
"To be honest, I said it a couple of weeks ago that they were my favourites to win it. But I think they have one hand on it already.
"And not just based on how good they are. I don't think any other team is good enough to catch them.
"You have Bohemians who are the closest to them and they have a couple of games in hand. Maybe they can put up a small bit of a title challenge.
"But for the rest of them, you see Shels, you see Pat's, I don't think any of them have the quality or the confidence to go on a proper run and try and challenge Shamrock Rovers.
"You see the depth in the squad. I even know some lads can't get into the squad that would walk into probably any other team in the league which is absolutely crazy, so Shamrock Rovers are in absolute cruise control at the moment."
The mood within Stephen Bradley's squad may be positive but that's a contrast to Drogheda United.
Although that is in no way related to on-pitch matters, with Kevin Doherty's team putting up a good fight on Monday night on the way to losing 2-1 at Sullivan and Lambe Park and currently sit in the top half of the table.
It's more related to the blow of being excluded from the UEFA Conference League due to multi-club ownership rules, with the verdict in their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport being announced hours before kick off on Monday.
Both Towell and ex-Drogheda and Republic of Ireland winger Keith Treacy sympathised with Doherty and his players on the podcast, with Towell highlighting how dreams of a European dalliance were dashed for personnel who might not be guaranteed to get that opportunity again.
"This is some boys' livelihoods. There's potential earnings there for lads in European games that they would never get the opportunity to earn playing in the League of Ireland. That's after being taken away from them," he said.
"Subconsciously, (players) are going to be thinking when the draw is made today, when the games are on in July, 'we should be out there', and all of a sudden they've no (European) games.
"They have two decisions to make now, Drogheda's players do. They either say 'it's going to hinder our performance and let it get our heads down', or else they can say, 'Let's use this to our advantage. We're going to be fresh, we're not going to have any games, let's rest, recuperate and be ready to attack the league.'"
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