There will doubtless be better games at Inchicore over the coming months than Saturday's defeat by St Patrick's of a Bray side for whom nothing seems to be going quite right at the moment, but it's hard to imagine that anyone who wanders along to Richmond Park between now and the end of March will witness a battle between two sides more determined to get out there and win the game.

As seems so often to be the case, Pat Dolan's side took their initial lead through a set piece, but there certainly was no lack of adventure from the home side who played with three men up front. In the second half, Bray played their hearts out too, though, with Pat Devlin throwing Mick Doohan into attack when he brought on two wingers, he ended up playing what seemed at times to amount to a 3-2-5 formation.

In the circumstances it seemed amazing that the enterprise displayed by the two managers wasn't rewarded with more by way of clear-cut chances on goal, but then the quality of Mbabzi's late strike for the home side made the entire evening out a more than worthwhile venture for the surprisingly small crowd who stayed until the last.

Most, of course, went home happy with the knowledge that the win kept Dolan's side in touch at the top of the table, behind the three other big Dublin clubs and a couple of points ahead of Derry in fifth place.

By this time next week, though, a huge amount of their hard work to date may have been made to count for nothing. Next Monday at noon the FAI's appeals committee will sit to consider whether the club should, after all, lose three points for each of the three games in which Paul Marney played before the error of failing to register him with the league was rectified.

Predictably, Dolan addressed the issue in his programme notes for the game, taking swipes at both Shelbourne and the media for their roles in the controversy.

"It is sadly ironic," he wrote, "that Shelbourne should launch an appeal against a decision made by officers of the board on a day when the world was reflecting on the division amongst nations which has created such tragedy(the terrorist attacks in the US). On reflection, to have journalists calling me for a reaction when I was so stunned by events in America was insensitive at best."

Not so insensitive, perhaps, as to drag the events in Manhattan into a dispute over the eircom League rulebook; but there you go, that seems not to have occurred to the St Patrick's manager.

As usual, Dolan implies that just about everyone even vaguely connected with the game here lies awake at night working out how best they might thwart his club's boundless ambition. Everyone, that is, except the three men who decided to ignore the specific instructions of the league's rulebook a couple of weeks back and impose only a £1,000 fine when quite specific sanctions were required.

Personally, I believe it would be a terrible shame if St Patrick's were to lose nine of the 11 points they have earned on the pitch because of a simple human error which no one seems to believe involved any attempt at deception.

It would also be ludicrous if next week's appeal board started awarding all of the points from the games involved to the other clubs, for while Shelbourne's Ollie Byrne may argue that that discretionary power exists, such a move would not only further punish St Patrick's, but also punish clubs that were not involved in the three games but might have been hoping Dolan's side would take points from Galway (who have not, in fact, appealed the original decision), Derry City and Shelbourne.

Nevertheless, the most important issue here is not about St Patrick's Athletic. Nor, for that matter, is it about the three other clubs most directly affected by Marney's improper registration.

It is, once again, about whether this league is ever to draw a line in the sand and finally start administering itself by its own rules. All 21 clubs have the opportunity to change those rules at each year's a.g.m., and if they wish to address the countless flaws with the current set of regulations then the sooner the preparations begin the better.

If, as part of those alterations, they wish to grant unlimited powers of discretion to the officers of the league, or to its new commissioner, Roy Dooney, to deal with disputes in whatever manner seen fit, then so be it, roll on the accusations that Dooney is a dictator answerable to no one.

But in the current dispute the three men who made their decision, with what were undoubtedly good intentions, exceeded the powers they are currently granted in a case like this, and the decision should therefore be overturned.

You would have thought that was a lesson the various disputes we have witnessed over the past few years would have taught everyone at Merrion Square. Next Monday, it seems, we'll discover whether anyone in there is even beginning to get the message.