Sean Hoare will celebrate with a cup of tea and an early night if Shamrock Rovers are handed the title tonight.
But unlike his manager Stephen Bradley, the centre-back will be tuning in to see how closest rivals Derry City get on away to Sligo Rovers.
The Hoops produced a show of strength on Friday to come from behind and beat St Pat’s 4-1 in a rocking Dublin derby at Tallaght Stadium.
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Derry were unable to follow suit and their point at home to Shelbourne on the same night means there is no margin for error today.
The Candystripes - who face Rovers in Tallaght on Sunday - have to win tonight otherwise Rovers will be crowned champions for the third year in a row.
“I’d say a few of us will watch it,” said Hoare, who scored the Hoops third goal against the Saints to put Rovers within touching distance of the trophy.
“It's kind of an anti-climax to be sitting home watching it with a cup of tea and saying 'alright, I'll go to bed now'.
“It would be nice to win in Tallaght on Sunday with the fans on the pitch and sell it out again.
“I’ll probably watch it at home. It's a bit of an anti climax if you go out and nothing happens, you know what I mean?
“We’ve a big European game on Thursday that I want to play in because I missed a couple of games in the group with injuries.
“I want to play in that game. I can go on the piss in a couple of weeks, you know. But as long as it's not mathematically done, we'll keep going.
“Friday was a big step towards it. It was massive. To come back and win, and win so convincingly, was brilliant and the result in Derry was great as well.”
Hoops boss Bradley is adamant that he won’t be watching the game unfold at the Showgrounds tonight as he has homework to do on Gent.
Rovers play the Belgian aces in Tallaght on Thursday in their penultimate Europa Conference League group stage game.
It has been a disappointing campaign after banking just one point from four games but Hoare understands why Bradley prioritised the league.
Hoare is no stranger to this level of elite competition having played in Dundalk’s 2020 Europa League group stage run when they clashed with the likes of Arsenal.
Out of the picture in the league that season, the Lilywhites placed a strong emphasis on their European adventure after a directive from their former American owners.
But Bradley, who gave his players two consecutive days off over the weekend for the first time since the European qualifiers began, wants to win on Thursday.
And Hoare said: “We’ve underachieved in the group and we want to give a good account of ourselves in the last two games even if we can't qualify.
“You might never play in the groups again so you may as well go out and give it your best, not go on the piss on Monday and play on Thursday - you can't do that.”
Hoare knows the group stages could have been a bigger priority had Rovers not left points behind them in the title race.
He added: “We left a lot of points out there. Drogheda took seven off us this year and Bohs beat us when we were flying.
“I'm not saying we have it wrapped up, but we could have and we could have concentrated on Europe but we didn't.
“If you ask the gaffer if he wants the league or to play well in Europe, he'll say the league. It's just the way it went.”
