Shelbourne - 2 Longford Town - 0: Shelbourne moved four points clear at the top with strike partners Glen Crowe and Gary O'Neill both getting on the scoresheet at Tolka Park.
Shelbourne created their opening chance on two minutes when Joseph Ndo cut in from the right before forcing Longford goalkeeper Michael Dempsey to turn the ball around the post.
Moments later, an outstretched Bobby Ryan volleyed wide from six yards out after Gary O'Neill had sent in a deep cross from the left.
Inevitably, though, Shelbourne's pressure had to pay and on six minutes Ndo released O'Neill on the left hand side box. O'Neill calmly lifted the ball over the advancing Dempsey to find the bottom corner.
Davy Rogers saw a 30-yard piledriver saved at the second attempt by Dempsey and then, on the half-hour mark, Ollie Cahill had struck an effort against the woodwork.
Shelbourne continued to dominate the play in the second half and it took a series of saves from Dempsey to keep the home side at bay.
With 10 minutes gone Dempsey produced a double save to deny both Ndo and Crowe and when the ball came back out to Ryan, Dempsey was on hand to turn his effort away.
Shelbourne then suffered a scare when Sean Dillon was forced to clear off the line following a Davy Byrne free kick.
The Dublin side finally stretched their lead on 66 minutes when O'Neill's low cross was converted by Crowe at the far post.
SHELBOURNE: Williams; O'Halloran, Hawkins, Dillon, Rogers; Ryan (Baker 76), Ndo, S Byrne, Cahill (Kearney 89); Crowe, O'Neill (Harris 80).
LONGFORD TOWN: Dempsey; Murphy, Gough, Doherty, Paisley (Freeman 61); J Martin (Wexter 83), O'Connor, Kirby, Fitzgerald (Byrne 61) , Prunty; Mooney.
Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)