Longford Town regained the leadership of the first division they had loaned to Galway United for 24 hours, though with a far from convincing 1-0 win over Athlone Town on Saturday night.
Shay Zellor got the only goal of the game after 18 minutes when finishing off a flowing move involving six players. Thereafter, Longford had goalkeeper Stephen O'Brien to thank for their win as he pulled off a string of excellent saves.
The wins for the joint-top two means that, for the first time this season, a slight gap of four points has opened up between them and the team now in third place, Monaghan United, who recorded the biggest win of the weekend in the division by beating St Francis 3-0 under the new floodlights at John Hyland Park on Friday night.
It was as you were elsewhere with Drogheda staying fourth, though they had to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw at home to Cobh Ramblers.
Pre-season promotion candidates Kilkenny City had to fight their way back to earn a point from another 1-1 draw at home to Limerick FC.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)